A capital in housing distress
My wife, son and I traveled to Springfield, Ill., this past weekend. Sure, it’s not exactly like going to Disneyland, but Springfield is the capital of Illinois, and only a three-plus-hour drive from Chicago.
While in Sprinfield, we dutifully took in the Abraham Lincoln Museum (actually, a pretty impressive place), toured the old state capital building, took a guided tour of Lincoln’s former home and watched more than a few large-screen movies devoted to the life of our 16th president.
This is a real estate blog, so I won’t give you the entire rundown of our touristy weekend. But I will say this, looking at the number of “For Sale” signs even off of Springfield’s downtown was rather sobering. Many of these homes were in terrible repair. And others were certainly foreclosures.
In fact, outside of the historic sites, much of Springfield looked rundown. Businesses were empty. Lots were overgrown. Pawn shops, Payday loans and cigarette stores seemed to be some of the few businesses that were flourishing.
This may not be a fair assessment of the Illinois state capital. It was rainy and dark the entire weekend, after all. But there were so many houses on the market. And some of them had that look of homes that’d been sitting on the market for a long, long time.
This is the state capital of my home state. It was a sobering reminder that this housing crisis is deep.
Tags: , economy, homes for sale, Illinois, SpringfieldRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Educational Tools, Foreclosed Properties, Insights and Commentaries, Real Life Stories
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