How bad does the ‘Illinois Exodus’ have to get? (Chicago: apartment, renting)

[midwest1]

Originally Posted by dtcbnd03

Illinois and Chicago are really two separate questions. Chicago is in the top 10 worldwide for GDP. I look outside and I see endless cranes building and filling high rises and every month there's news about a new major corporation adding jobs downtown (Facebook, Salesforce, McDonalds, etc.) Chicago will be fine and all the people moving to NWI to commute to Chicago is proof it will be fine. I don't know if Chicago can prop up all of Illinois though (acknowledging Chicago has its own serious debts).

This thread is really about the Rockford, Springfield, Peoria, Champaign, Bloomington/Normals of the world that have suffered serious population / job loss. Outside of Chicago...IL is not an attractive state both geographically and fiscally. I expect the exodus downstate to continue and in the next couple of years the general decline to accelerate...

The irony is that it was the Democratic Machine of Chicago....its incestuous government union corruption that has created the horrific fiscal nightmare which the communitues outside of Chicago must somehow deal with. Without Chicago's nefarious fiscal influence...the rest of Illinois would probably be doing as well as Iowa or Indiana.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by jasperhobbs

I agree. You know what else will happen? those that leave Illinois will still come back to this forum and bash the state.

I moved Berwyn in the early 2000s right after their big white flight due to Hispanics moving in so I know that to be true. They will continue to come here and bash the state and City too. And if you support Chicago, you might even get private messages from someone threatening to harm you for endangering people's lives by encouraging them to move here, like I got once LOL! So get ready.

Anyway, as much as I abhor saying this, they have some points. The state really does have to get its act together in a lot of ways. Hopefully I'm wrong about J.B. and the complete and unchecked Democrat majority we're going to have and we can get things turned around a little.

[aga412]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Hopefully I'm wrong about J.B. and the complete and unchecked Democrat majority we're going to have and we can get things turned around a little.

Doubtful, but the optimism is admirable.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by aga412

Doubtful, but the optimism is admirable.

Yeah, I think it's best when there's some sort of balance. I think Rauner really had an uphill battle and, in retrospect, should have probably turned it over to Jeanne Ives. Not that she would have had an easy time either but she would have done better among core downstate conservatives and was a fresh face, which would have made the race a lot closer. Oh well. It is what it is now.

[mjstef]

Illinois is going to keep bleeding off and the garbage coming out fo Chicago is a lot of the cause. Withough Chicago, Illinois would likely be a decent place. I grew up in McHenry County on a farm my great grandfather purchased in 1899. Farming was beginning to be a pain with all the "city" folks on the road that would get impatient behind our slow moving equipment, City kids running their dirtbikes through our crops with no respect to private property and not really profitable unless a farmer had 500-1000 acres. We had 146 acres, so i helped dad when i could and worked off the farm. I started driving from Marengo to Elk Grove in 1990. It took about 45 minutes. By the time i quit that job and went to work in Woodstock in 1995 the drive was nearly an hour and a half. I spent 4 1/2 years in Woodstock when Dad got an offer he couldn't refuse for the family farm. Our entire family, 12 of us left the state for good in the fall of 1999 and have NEVER looked back.

Dad bought an RV park in Florida and we all kicked in as their was enough income to go around. After my wife was told by a doctor that all her sickness down their was due to mold, (also allergic to penicillin) we left in 2004 for Wisconsin and shortly after Montana. We are back in Wisconsin for good now and my father sold the RV park in Florida moving to Northern Wisconsin as well. I will tell you after 19 years, NONE of us miss anything about HELLinois and actually have $$$$ in my pocket. The taxes, Regulation, Traffic ECT are INSANE!

I do property maintenance on vacation homes in the Wisconsin Northwoods and have about 30 clients. Lost 4 this year alone as they also left HELLinois for good and retired up here and take care of their own property now. Most of my clients are from the Northern Illinois area and virtually NONE of them plan on retiring there. The main sticking point is property taxes but crime, traffic, vehicle fees and expenses and lack of open space are right behind. The last client i lost in August had owned a 1960 3 bed 2 bath in Oak Lawn Illinois that they sold for $285,000. The property taxes where almost 9K a year!!!!! They bought a very beautiful and comparable 3 bedroom house on 1.5 acres on a 200 acre lake here for $265,000 and taxes are $3,500!! Why would anyone stay in Illinois???

For those still working or those who don't want to live on a lake, you can pick up nice single family homes here on an acre for less than $150,000 and have a tax bill under 2K a year. Nice homes in town are under 100K with taxes around $1,500. I bought a 6 bed 3 full bath on 4 acres of woods with a 30x40 pole barn and a 3 car detached garage built in 2004 for $190,000 fully furnished and pay $2,150 a year in taxes. Between the wife and i we make around 70K a year and live VERY comfortably with a $800 mortgage and no debt. All of this said, If you NEED the city or NEED Nordstrom's, Bloomingdales, Prada, Gucci Ect. don't bother looking because along with the cheap cost of living we don't have that trash here.......

[CGab]

Originally Posted by mjstef

Illinois is going to keep bleeding off and the garbage coming out fo Chicago is a lot of the cause. Withough Chicago, Illinois would likely be a decent place. I grew up in McHenry County on a farm my great grandfather purchased in 1899. Farming was beginning to be a pain with all the "city" folks on the road that would get impatient behind our slow moving equipment, City kids running their dirtbikes through our crops with no respect to private property and not really profitable unless a farmer had 500-1000 acres. We had 146 acres, so i helped dad when i could and worked off the farm. I started driving from Marengo to Elk Grove in 1990. It took about 45 minutes. By the time i quit that job and went to work in Woodstock in 1995 the drive was nearly an hour and a half. I spent 4 1/2 years in Woodstock when Dad got an offer he couldn't refuse for the family farm. Our entire family, 12 of us left the state for good in the fall of 1999 and have NEVER looked back.

Dad bought an RV park in Florida and we all kicked in as their was enough income to go around. After my wife was told by a doctor that all her sickness down their was due to mold, (also allergic to penicillin) we left in 2004 for Wisconsin and shortly after Montana. We are back in Wisconsin for good now and my father sold the RV park in Florida moving to Northern Wisconsin as well. I will tell you after 19 years, NONE of us miss anything about HELLinois and actually have $$$$ in my pocket. The taxes, Regulation, Traffic ECT are INSANE!

I do property maintenance on vacation homes in the Wisconsin Northwoods and have about 30 clients. Lost 4 this year alone as they also left HELLinois for good and retired up here and take care of their own property now. Most of my clients are from the Northern Illinois area and virtually NONE of them plan on retiring there. The main sticking point is property taxes but crime, traffic, vehicle fees and expenses and lack of open space are right behind. The last client i lost in August had owned a 1960 3 bed 2 bath in Oak Lawn Illinois that they sold for $285,000. The property taxes where almost 9K a year!!!!! They bought a very beautiful and comparable 3 bedroom house on 1.5 acres on a 200 acre lake here for $265,000 and taxes are $3,500!! Why would anyone stay in Illinois???

For those still working or those who don't want to live on a lake, you can pick up nice single family homes here on an acre for less than $150,000 and have a tax bill under 2K a year. Nice homes in town are under 100K with taxes around $1,500. I bought a 6 bed 3 full bath on 4 acres of woods with a 30x40 pole barn and a 3 car detached garage built in 2004 for $190,000 fully furnished and pay $2,150 a year in taxes. Between the wife and i we make around 70K a year and live VERY comfortably with a $800 mortgage and no debt. All of this said, If you NEED the city or NEED Nordstrom's, Bloomingdales, Prada, Gucci Ect. don't bother looking because along with the cheap cost of living we don't have that trash here.......

Very well said!

[MSchemist80]

Indeed Chicago is the political @hole of the US.

[BethMac]

I grew up in the Chicago suburbs but currently live in Peoria. Peoria is very different from Chicago (I prefer the openness and relative friendliness of Chicago suburbs). The people who are still here in their 40's are usually die hard Peorians who stay because of family. Still, I know of at least one "die hard" couple in their 50's who are leaving, even though they have a pretty fixed income. The simply cannot tolerate the cost of living, esp the property taxes.

My husband does not make too much a month, we're middle class. I have a property in another state that costs the same as the house I'm in now. In the other state I pay about $2000/yr in property tax, here I pay $5000/yr. That is a cost of $30k every decade just for the privilege of staying in IL, a state that also has high state tax. We could do a lot with that extra $250/mo. Combined with the extra $2k a year I pay in state taxes compared with this other state, that's 50k a decade. We are definitely looking to exit unless things change.

[Mouldy Old Schmo]

Who is leaving and where are they going? Is the exodus statewide or concentrated in certain areas?

[mjstef]

Originally Posted by Mouldy Old Schmo

Who is leaving and where are they going? Is the exodus statewide or concentrated in certain areas?

1. Indiana gained 19,748
2. Florida gained 14,978
3. Wisconsin gained 11,448
4. Texas gained 10,208
5. Iowa gained 9,733
6. Missouri gained 8,520
   
   Top 6 States Illinois Residents Are Moving to