Vacant Properties

The Fourth Quarter 2012 IHS Cook County House Price Index reflects house price changes on properties with repeat sales from the first quarter of 1997 through the fourth quarter of 2012. The IHS House Price Index tracks quarterly price changes for the four primary residential property types found in the County: single family homes, condominium units, small rental buildings with two to four units, and larger rental buildings with five or more units.

Since the housing crisis began, many for-sale single-family homes (SFHs) in the region have become rental units or are now vacant.  This has diverse implications for how the region’s communities recover from the housing crisis and manage a housing stock that has traditionally been owner-occupied.  Recent data from the American Community Survey (ACS), which provides a rolling estimate for the 2007-11 period, estimates that SFH rental units in the region increased by 42 percent and vacant SFHs increased by 126 percent between 2000 and 2007-11.    

This webinar will provide an overview of the active pieces of housing-rated legislation at the State Capitol in Springfield and what you can do to support them.  We'll also provide a preview of key pieces of federal housing-related legislation likely to be introduced this year.
 
The covered legislation will include bills on the following topics: foreclosure protections for homeowners and renters, homelessness, reforming the mortgage interest deduction and others.
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The foreclosure crisis left many communities with a dilemma: vacant homes are accumulating quickly at the same time as fewer and fewer people can qualify for mortgages to buy those homes. What can be done with the growing inventory of vacant, abandoned homes? One solution gathering attention is renting out single-family homes, but some communities are wary due to a history with irresponsible landlords, while some investors are struggling to find ways to manage properties effectively.

On January 30, 2013, Regional HOPI, HOPI, and the CMAP Housing Committee co-hosted a forum on single family rental housing. The keynote speaker was Alan Mallach of the Brookings Institution and Center for Community Progress, who gave a national overview of single family rental housing trends. Dory Rand from Woodstock Institute presented on vacancy and foreclosure trends in the Chicago region. You can download their presentations below. 
 

By the Metropolitan Planning Council
 

The Cook County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously today to approve an ordinance establishing the Cook County Land Bank Authority. We applaud Commissioner Bridget Gainer, Board President Preckwinkle, and the rest of the commissioners for leading a campaign against the blight and abandonment that are holding back Cook County communities.
 

 As a result of the foreclosure crisis and increasing  demand for rental housing throughout the Chicagoland region, many more  single-family homes are finding their way into the rental market. For many investors and municipalities in the region, managing single-family rental options on a large scale is a first-time effort with many unanswered questions.  
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By the Northwest Suburban Housing Collaborative
 
 When a rental property reaches a significant level of deterioration, courts can appoint a receiver to take over management of the property to bring it back into code compliance and improve the asset for both the residents who live in the property and the community nearby.