Column: Lake County homebuilding trying to meet demand

Chicago Tribune

2 days ago

If Illinois is facing a severe housing shortage, Lake County is doing its fair share to make up some of the deficit. Construction of new apartments, condos and houses abounds in this corner of the region.
A recent study asserts the Land of Lincoln has a shortage of about 142,000 housing units — that's about the size of everyman's Peoria. To keep pace with demand over the next five years, some 227,000 homes need to be built to keep pace with demand.
The survey from the Illinois Economic Policy Institute and the Project for Middle Class Renewal at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign also found that the state has a more affordable housing market than New York City and Los Angeles. Yet, the housing shortage will cause the affordability index to rise in the coming years.
Researchers mined U.S. Census Bureau data and determined the state's vacancy rate for rental and owner-occupied units has reached historic lows. Home values have gone up 37% in the state since 2019, the report found, with insurance and property taxes also rising. The median sale price for existing homes in the U.S. is about $438,466, according to real estate brokerage firm Redfin.
Illinois, too, has a higher rate of homeownership compared to the national average. Gov. JB Pritzker, who announced he is running for a third gubernatorial term last week, has listed housing availability and affordability as a key concern of his administration, but has done little to make that happen, especially given the high property tax rates Illinoisans endure.
In the past five years, the report found that new home listings in the state dropped by 64%; new housing construction permits fell by an average of 13%. The real estate market for used homes has seen a dip in inventory of stock because many senior citizens have decided to stay in their current houses.
Also, higher mortgage rates and increased building costs, which may be aggravated by President Donald Trump's ongoing tariff wars, have affected the housing sector.
For many, though, it is housing affordability that causes them to miss out on one of the American dreams, home ownership, causing them to rent longer. Another recent study, this one from Realtor.com, an Austin, Texas-based real estate listings website, noted the typical American household needs to earn $114,000 in order to buy a median-priced home.
That's an increase of $47,000 from 2019, according to Realtor.com. A recent Gallup Poll found that only 36% of respondents are satisfied with affordable housing in their communities.
According to the National Association of Realtors, the age of first-time homebuyers is 38. In the late 1980s, it was 27.
That should tell policy planners that there's a disconnect among would-be homebuyers and current market conditions. Housing affordability, experts say, means that a mortgage payment, including insurance and taxes, should make up 30% or less of monthly income.
Demand, however, appears to be fueling new housing construction across Lake County and other locations in the region. In Kane County, west of Elgin, a plan to build 900 housing units on a broad swath of what was once farmland near rural La Fox has been proposed. In Kendall County, a development with luxury apartments is underway in downtown Oswego.
Waukegan, with an affordable and wide mix of housing stock, is seeing an uptick in building plans, including repurposing the old YMCA at County and Clayton streets downtown. A proposal, with the help of city funding, would turn three floors of the building into 19 upscale apartments, with the bottom floor reserved for commercial space.
In Gurnee, three sizable apartment buildings off Milwaukee Avenue, overlooking Interstate 94, have been under construction for more than a year. Village officials, too, have to decide on what form the property along Washington Street, west of Milwaukee back to the tollway, will take.
Libertyville has seen new townhomes on Peterson Road, west of Milwaukee, on property which once was the Iron Horse Par 3 golf course and Hitchin Post Motel and restaurant. Renters have moved into the apartment complexes straddling the Canadian National Railway line in downtown Mundelein, which is also seeing a new barbecue restaurant opening nearby at Park and Seymour avenues.
Multi-family housing is also underway along Butterfield Road, just north of Allanson Road. The village has seen thousands of new housing units built since 2010, according to one reckoning.
Mundelein is also home to the current development elephant in the county: The 700-acre Wirtz property on the village's western edge, dubbed Ivanhoe Village.
The property has been in the Wirtz family, which owns the Chicago Blackhawks and is part-owner of the United Center, for more than 150 years. Initial proposals call for thousands of homes to be built on the property, phased in over a 25-year timeline.
As construction continues and begins on these housing projects and more across the county, municipal officials need to consider making homes and apartments affordable for new and current residents. Uncertain times call for certainty when it comes to putting roofs over people's heads.