Record condo numbers to saturate downtown

These high rise condos are awfully darn expensive for what you get. Plus the assessments are outrageous. How many people do they think can afford to live like that? It just doesn't make sense. Where do they think all these people are going to get all this money?

I am so incredibly glad we sold ours before these units hit the market. Good luck getting out once you buy in with that kind of saturation.

$400,000 to $800,000 for middle priced units! Ouch! Maybe I'm not middle class...

Now Chicago has two things in common with Miami, Florida. A Glut of Condos and Loser football team. Goooo Colts!

We're having a hard enough time trying to sell our condo out here in Lisle. It's just bad everywhere right now.

Mile wrote:

$400,000 to $800,000 for middle priced units! Ouch! Maybe I'm not middle class...

Exactly, Chicago is trying to be so sheik and upscale when it's the hub of the midwest/prairie. And city officials can't figure out why the city and now the county population is declining...answer: the middle-class is fleeing!

Good point Mark. I think of going someplace cheaper all the time.

Unfortunately, this will do nothing to stop the yuppies-in-training from Michigan, Ohio and other midwest cities from streaming in.

Mark wrote:

<quoted text>
Exactly, Chicago is trying to be so sheik and upscale when it's the hub of the midwest/prairie. And city officials can't figure out why the city and now the county population is declining...answer: the middle-class is fleeing!

Where are these statistics you are citing where the city/county population is declining? Do you have any links to back all this up?

The middle class isn't fleeing, people are getting older. The first couple generations of condo inhabitants are starting to move on; after a while people want more space, perhaps relocate, want lawns, want to live where it's cheaper to raise a family, and other things. You'll find the same kind of sloughing of 30-somethings in NY and LA as well - they all head out to suburban areas from which they can commute to their jobs in the city. Sure there is a large amount of lifers that live within Chicago city limits (or NY or LA), but you will always find the urban 30 something to be kind of transient - move downtown in college, get the degree, get married, move to the burbs/get transferred/move on. We are a very fluid demographic.

I don't think the population is growing. The cost of living here is well above other places, and the taxes are way to expensive. Why give that to Cook County. Better spent on wine, women, and song.

Obviously the developers look like a bunch of idiots. They deserve to take a bath on their bad decisions

Mile wrote:

$400,000 to $800,000 for middle priced units! Ouch! Maybe I'm not middle class...

No kidding! I thought my $144K/year was solid middle class but I wouldn't strap myself to something that pricey.

Mile wrote:

$400,000 to $800,000 for middle priced units! Ouch! Maybe I'm not middle class...

Seriously. My wife and I earn $200K per year and there's no way we could afford a "middle priced" unit. We can't sell our place in Wrigleyville and now more condos will be coming on line - great. Super. We've done nothing wrong and the speculators, opportunists, smarmy mortgage brokers, bankers, securities firms and an overall lack of regulation is eroding our home value and keeping us from moving to a new home. Daley, Stroger and the rest of the tax-and-spend politicos and their crooked cronies can all take a long walk off of a short pier!

It will be a Ghost town in the sky.
Six to eight years from now, the prices might stablize but you can bet your sweet potato it's not going be soon enough. As long as these knuckle heads (aldermen/women) are giving land to their croonies, prices will not stabilize until they get their appropriate kickbacks.

Listen...

Our lowly polictician, Governor on down, only care about themselves and not your communities. If they can't fill the vacancies, your taxes and assessment will go up.

Where are our visionaries and city planners?

NO Way wrote:

I don't think the population is growing. The cost of living here is well above other places, and the taxes are way to expensive. Why give that to Cook County. Better spent on wine, women, and song.

Fifty years ago as I was entering the party life after serving my country,my father warned me of the wayward life of wine women and song.I partially took his advice and gave up singing.

Humbling wrote:

<quoted text>
No kidding! I thought my $144K/year was solid middle class but I wouldn't strap myself to something that pricey.

It definitely is. That's the problem: without the magical financing of the past five years very few people can actually afford this "affordable" housing.

The home values that are eroding are just the sham values that were pumped up by ridiculously easy credit (that people couldn't afford to pay back!) The real value of something is what people will pay for it, which in a country where people don't save and wages are stagnant is not too much.

Sorry, developers and sellers, The Great American Ponzi Scheme has ended and you have been left holding the bag. It would be fitting if only the greedy and dishonest got hit by this, but of course that's not the way these things go.

I've heard of people swapping properties instead of selling, just a thought for those of you that are stuck.

NO Way wrote:

I don't think the population is growing. The cost of living here is well above other places, and the taxes are way to expensive. Why give that to Cook County. Better spent on wine, women, and song.

Because, unlike many other areas in this crap economy, there still continue to be jobs here. Until those dry up, people will continue to move in despite a higher cost of living.

NO Way wrote:

I don't think the population is growing. The cost of living here is well above other places, and the taxes are way to expensive. Why give that to Cook County. Better spent on wine, women, and song.

I track the employment numbers in the area and, believe it or not, those numbers are showing increases still. I don't get it. You would think that people and companies would want lower cost of living areas. But then why do people live in the city and commute to jobs in the suburbs?