Yorkville (Chicago, Springfield, Oswego: real estate, foreclosures, HOA fees)

[09FX4]

Educate me on Yorkville please! I've been looking at some townhomes up there and they are priced ridiculously low! Why is that? Many of them are new builds and have never been lived in.

[linicx]

The United City of Yorkville is located in Kendall County, IL on or very near Fox River. Generally speaking, it is probably in an area of high-value homes and good school districts. The County Tax Assessor can tell you the history of the county that caused the cost of housing to fall.

United City of Yorkville, Illinois - Official Site

[Drover]

Yorkville is a fast-growing exurb with low land values relative to much of the Chicago area because there's still a lot of wide-open space out there to develop. There was probably a fair bit of overspeculating by developers but I wouldn't worry about real estate values in the long term. It won't be more than 20 years before Yorkville is completely enveloped into suburbia.

[sgresident]

The area in yorkville was on the fast-track to develop. The city approved a lot of development, then the market fell to pieces. many developers pulled out and there are a lot of foreclosures etc. the areas of yorkville, montgomery, sugar grove etc. all have a lot of great homes at great prices. depending on where you will have to commute to for work, you might want to take traffic into account. traffic on rt 47 at rush hour times is a nightmare.

[09FX4]

Thanks for the info. I'm in Field Service and haul a mobile laser around in a company truck so commuting to work isn't a problem for me. I was originally planning on Springfield or around there as that's where they recommended. They've since gave me a larger radius to move into and I don't know if I can pass up a condo/townhouse listed for $80,000 that sold just 4 yrs ago for over $215,000. I don't think I could get much a much better investment opportunity.

Also, what are these areas like? Are they nice, or are they going downhill now that the home values took a hit?? Do you see a rebound of the home values within the next few years?

[sgresident]

The areas of Yorkville, Sugar Grove, Montgomery and Oswego are all fairly middle class with a new supply of homes. Many of the developer/builders pulled out of the area due to the economy. Most homes were quality built and would be a great bargain. I would see the area bouncing back as soon as available housing stock starts moving.

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by 09FX4

Educate me on Yorkville please! I've been looking at some townhomes up there and they are priced ridiculously low! Why is that? Many of them are new builds and have never been lived in.

Because there is no demand to live out that far.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Vlajos

Because there is no demand to live out that far.

That would explain why Kendall county's population more than doubled in the last 10 years making it the fastest-growing county in America.

[sgresident]

I guess Vlajos can think whatever he/she prefers to think, but these suburban areas have grown tremendously in the past 10 years. We love it out here!

[yousah]

As an appraiser who has covered that area for 25 years I can tell you that there are two major problems with many of the townhomes that are now for the sale.

The first is that some of those townhomes communities have backup SSA's (special service area) that allows the City of Yorkville to levy assessments against the association for any unpaid debts that the developer has to the city. So basically, many of the developers walked away from their projects without finishing the infrastructure and it's pretty likely that the cost of any needed improvements will be levied against the homeowners.

Secondly, some of the homeowners associations are still be managed by the developers or their representative management companies. The developer who doesn't have enough money can easily dramatically increase the cost of the HOA fee to cover their costs. Also consider that many of the lower priced townhouse/condo projects have unfinished improvements that someone is eventually going to have to pay for.

Most rational buyers have figured out that many of these low priced units might not be so low priced in the future if the SSA is levied and/or the HOA fees skyrocket.

Your best bet is to find an established townhouse community that is already built out and been in operation for maybe 5-10 years. You'll can still get some nice units that are nearly new yet without the uncertainty of future increases in fees.