The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages

Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by charlesu on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @10:23AM (#24421287)

The median home price doesn't mean much in Chicago. Most homes in the desirable neighborhoods are 1BR and 2BR condos and well over $300k or include outrageously high HOAs ($400 - $1K). There are thousands of sub $200k homes in the city but they're located in dangerous under resourced neighborhoods to the south and far west. In either case, you will pay 2% property taxes, which means comes out to $400 a month in property taxes -- about twice the amount you'd pay in any other part of the country. And that's in addition to 10% sales taxes and 4% income taxes. The only other places with property taxes that high have no income tax (Texas) or are near New York City.

Chicago isn't nearly as great a deal as it's made out to be.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by OldHand2018 on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:17AM (#24421949)

"desirable neighborhoods" in Chicago is code for living in a bubble (should be very firmly noted that this is NOT race-related). Yes, you pay a lot more for that. There are neighborhoods in the city that have lower crime, faster access to downtown, higher median incomes, better-rated schools and lower house prices than many of the "desirable neighborhoods". The Near South Side is an obvious example.

However, you can look at the tax rates within Cook County and even compare them to the suburban counties [1]. The composite property tax rate is as low as it gets around here. Most cities are double or triple the Chicago rate.

It isn't as good of a deal as when I moved here, but if you've got a tech or other white-collar salary, Chicago is still a really good deal. It's your responsibility to consider cost when choosing a location within the metro area. If you ignore it, you shouldn't be surprised that you pay more.

[1] https://www.cookcountyclerk.com/service/tax-extension-and-ra...

EDIT - Illinois and Texas heavily depend on property taxes for local funding. The actual rates you pay have an insanely high variance from city to city. Some taxing districts don't align with city boundaries either, so one neighborhood may pay more than another. You can use it as a proxy for how well-run a city is, but on the other hand Chicago isn't a particularly well-run city - it just has a huge amount of high-value commercial and industrial property (which is taxed at double the rate of residential property). If you're going to live in either state, you really need to look at the hyper-local tax rates and put that into your decision matrix. The data isn't even hard to find.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by jointpdf on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @11:38AM (#24422178)

Indeed, my shortlist is Chicago (and maybe Grand Rapids) at this point. I’ve always been in love with Chicago—such a gorgeous city. Housing wise, I’m enchanted by the industrial brick and timber loft condos that there seem to be a lot of for decent prices.

Can you recommend other neighborhoods besides Lakeview/Lincoln Park? Those are the only areas I’ve spent significant time in aside from downtown.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by OldHand2018 on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @12:13PM (#24422515)

It really depends on where you plan to work, where your friends are, etc. I would recommend that you rent for a year or two and spend time exploring neighborhoods. You'll find a location you love eventually. There are definitely dangerous areas, but you're going to hear a lot of very outdated advice such as "never go south of Roosevelt" when in reality from Roosevelt south to Hyde Park has seen an incredible renaissance over the last 20 years.

FYI, brick and timber loft condos are super cool, but they usually have strange layouts and the buildings tend to require a lot of maintenance. Don't let me scare you off, but you're going to want to rent one for a year before buying one, just to make sure.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by jointpdf on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @01:39PM (#24423562)

Strange layouts and maintenance projects are kind of my jam, so you may be increasing my enticement here. Thank you for the tips.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by charlesu on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @06:37PM (#24426709)

The Near South Side is a desirable neighborhood and the situation there is as I described. It's small condos with exorbitant HOAs. Do you mean Bronzeville?

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by OldHand2018 on Wednesday September 09, 2020 @08:37PM (#24427666)

I'm glad you think so; many northsiders do not! But you know that, for example, the Near North Side has an average price per sq foot that is $50-100 higher than the Near South Side.

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Re:The Fed now owns nearly 1/3 of all U.S. mortgages by cableshaft on Thursday September 10, 2020 @04:17AM (#24430061)

I bought a 1700sq foot house that was ready to move in, in a pretty quiet and safe neighborhood, with decent (but not amazing) schools, in a suburb of Chicago for $230k with no HOA fees just 2 years ago. There are neighborhoods here that are really expensive, but others that are more affordable.

If I worked in the city I would have at least an hour commute each day, though, but it only takes me 30 minutes to get to the city outside of normal commuting hours.

Property taxes are kind of high around here though. I think I'm paying about what you're saying, and some of the homes I looked at (but decided against) were over $6000 a year in property taxes. Those were in areas with really good schools though.

Also Illinois as a whole as a state has one of the highest overall tax burdens in the country, because the state is pretty much broke, so that might be enough to stay out of Illinois.

You could actually find a place just over the border in Indiana, though, and have the same commute to downtown Chicago as I would have (about an hour) but suddenly have a much lower tax burden. I've worked with several coworkers in the past that commuted to the suburbs of Chicago for work every day from Indiana, it's doable.

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