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84 ILLINOIS Agencies Receive Millions to Support Elderly and Disabled Housing Across the state of Illinois, grants have been announced to aid senior citizens and citizens with disabilities, along with their families living in as- sisted housing, to live more independent lifestyles. Agencies have received over $2 million in federal grants. According to a July report by e Associated Press, U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth announced the grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. How will the grants be spent and split up specifically? About $1 million will be split among 10 housing authorities to provide counseling and advice to current and prospective tenants about property maintenance, financial matters, and other issues. e recipients include housing authorities in Decatur, Carlinville, and Chicago and its suburbs. e other $1 million will go to 22 housing complexes statewide to employ service coordina- tors for apartment housing designed for elderly people and tenants with disabilities. ey will ensure residents are connected with services they need to remain in their homes. Chicago Experiences Suburban Boom While cities like Chicago might be lacking in terms of being a hot market, four surrounding suburbs are showing all the signs of heating up according to a recent report. Two of the towns, Winthrop Harbor and Beach Park, reside on Chi- cago's north side, and the other two, Homewood and Flossmoor, reside on Chicago's south side. In all four of these towns, home prices are increasing, the median home sale price is higher, and the time the average house spends on the market is shorter. According to data released in July by the Chicago Association for Realtors, the median home price in Winthrop Harbor rose to $158,250, which is an increase of 17 percent from the start of the year. Similarly, median home prices in Beach Park have risen 14.5 percent to $170,000. For reference, the average increase in Lake County was 9.1 percent. e number of homes sold also was on the rise, with Winthrop Harbor up 20 percent and Beach Park up 32 percent, whereas the average increase for Lake County was 4.2 percent. Fur- ther, homes are being sold at a faster pace when compared to a year prior. In the former, the aver- age market time was down from 156 days a year prior to only 70 days, while the latter dropped to 120 days, down from 166. Realtors in the north Chicago area attribute this boom to more affordable homes near the water that stay cheap because they are far enough away from the city. It's a similar case in the south. Prices in Flossmoor are up to a median price of $205,000, an increase of 18.3 percent, as is the volume of sales, which increased 25 percent, while houses were on the market an average of 133 days. A year prior, that figure sat at 162 days. In Homewood, the median price of a home is up 24 percent to $148,000. e number of sales increased 13 percent, compared to 3.2 percent in Cook County. Finally, homes on the market in this town sit at around 103 days, a small drop from 107 days prior. is market's success is attributed to a slow recovery from the housing crash, which keeps home prices low. IOWA State Capital is the Best Place to Call Home ere are generally three aspects homebuyers look into when deciding on a place to live—af- fordability, a strong economy, and good quality of life. While most U.S. cities can only thrive in one or two of these categories, there is a place to go for excellence in all three areas: Des Moines, Iowa. A report by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis looked at the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country and compared the three aspects. e analysis lists Omaha, Nebraska, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as the only other cities that also have high rank's for affordability, economy, and quality of life. In fact, only 15 cities got high marks in two categories, most of them focused in quality of life. Ultimately, if it is most important to the homebuyer to live in a place with good quality of life and economic strength, then one will just have to sacrifice affordability. According to the report, the reason these tradeoffs exist is mostly, but not entirely, due to market forces. People want to live in cities with a strong economy and high quality of life. An increased demand for housing leads to higher prices and lower affordability. Nice places to live get their housing costs bid up due to strong de- mand. e opposite is true as well. Regions with underperforming economies and a lower quality of life do have better affordability. e solution to move more U.S. cities into that sweet spot with Des Moines is the same one you've been hearing throughout the housing crisis: build more housing. INDIANA City Council Member Pushes New Housing Indiana-based newspaper e South Bend Tribune reported the announcement of one of their Common Council members plan to fill empty lots with new homes for the lower-to- middle income homebuyer. South Bend City Councilwoman Regina Williams-Preston announced a "100 Homes in 500 Days" strategy. e city would work with private lenders to help people build single-family homes on lots that have been emptied. Williams-Preston believes the city could do more to link people with existing renovation programs, within and outside city government. Also, awareness needs to be brought to the South Bend Home Improvement Program, which gives grants for home repairs to house- holds earning up to 80 percent of the city's median household income. "Some people have been living in these neighborhoods and paying taxes for 50 years and their tax dollars have recently been spent on Smart Streets and developing luxury homes downtown," Preston-Williams said. "at's great, but now we want some of our tax dollars to be reinvested in our neighborhoods so we can have some benefit from it." She thinks the city also should commit new money to housing rehabilitation grants, since more would be needed as this initiative ramps up next year Preston-Williams and those working with her on the proposed plan have asked the admin- istration to seek council approval of $6 million for the next two years to fund a grant program for the home construction effort. It might cost $160,000 to build the home, but it will appraise for much less than that when finished because of surrounding property values. Executive Director of the city's Department of Community Investment James Mueller said he couldn't make any specific commitments regarding the 2018 budget the administration will submit for council approval. "We share the view that we should consider

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