According to the 2019 Minnesota Housing Partnership Biennial Report on the “State of the State’s Housing,” compiled by their research officer Gabriela Norton, our neck-of-the-woods has the third highest rate of owner cost burden in Minnesota, with one in five owner households paying more than 30 percent of their income on housing.
From 2000 to 2017 (the period represented in the report), median home values rose by double digits in every county in the Northland region with two of these counties ranked in the top 10 for increases in median home values within the entire state.
Cook County was identified as one of these two counties. In fact, Cook County experienced the highest increase in median home value since 2000 with an increase of 59 percent, to $241,400.
And when you consider numbers from more recent Zillow home value research, which puts the median price of a home in Cook County at $288,000 in 2020, the percentage of increase surges to nearly 90 percent (89.7)!
Couple this bit of jolting news with two other findings in the report:
1.) Cook County also ranked in the top ten of counties seeing the largest decrease in owner income.
2.) Cook County’s growing housing costs continue to threaten the health of our seniors.
Fifty-seven (57) percent of all senior renters and more than a quarter of all senior homeowners pay more than they can afford for housing.
Sobering realness …
Owning a home has long been a cornerstone of the American dream; only possible, however, when homes remain affordable.
For many in Cook County, aspirations of owning a home–or even for those who presently do, remaining in their home–are butting up against real world market realities: escalating prices brought about by out of market buyers who use their “imported wealth” to purchase second or retirement homes; and the increasing market stress caused by conversions to short-term rental properties.
Consequently, affordable homes have become a “vanishing species” in Cook County. As the above statistics reflect, the median list price for both new and existing single-family homes is far beyond the means of most households who are not employed by local government. A government, I might add, who, as we’ve all witnessed, continues its process of pricing people out of housing.
Sometimes such decision makers are happy holding on to the naive view that there are no associated costs. They don’t want to hear about the hidden or non-obvious price tags that are a result of their undiscerning decisions.
Let’s just say, such decisions will continue to breed consequences unless something changes.
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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