This BREAKING NEWS ARTICLE Is About How The Coronavirus Outbreak Devastate Chicago Housing Market

The COVID-19 Pandemic has affected Chicago more so than any other major city in the nation.

Led by the far-left liberal first time Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city has been deteriorating prior to the coronavirus outbreak in February 2020. However, with extremely poor leadership by the rookie liberal Mayor Lightfoot, the city’s tax policies, high crime, defunding the police, and pro-protest friendly has created a mass exodus of individual taxpayers and small business owners. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot seems clueless and lost on how to fix Chicago’s worst financial crisis in history. Mayor Lightfoot has really taken Chicago downhill with the Coronavirus Pandemic. Lightfoot has shot herself in the foot by following Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s executive stay at home lockdown order. Chicago is losing tens of thousands of taxpayers and businesses every day due to the mayor’s excessively restrictive executive stay at home lockdown order. Lightfoot ordered all restaurants, bars, cafes, salons, gyms, and other non-essential businesses. This is not only hurting loss revenues to the city but business owners can no longer not afford to stay open. While other cities that remain open during the coronavirus crisis are recovering from the crisis, Chicago is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Chicago ranks as the highest taxed city in the nation. However, the city is broke and on the verge of bankruptcy.

Poor Leadership From Lori Lightfoot And The Coronavirus Outbreak Devastated Chicago Housing Market

Chicago is facing a $1.3 billion dollar budget gap due to financial mismanagement and irresponsibility.

• Part of the financial mess is Lightfoot and the city’s city council are in a state of denial with the blood-sucking pension system
• The pension debt keeps on mounting year after year with no end in sight
• The pension system is broken
• More and more city workers are retiring today than ever before
• City workers such as police officers, firefighters, school teachers retire at 50% to 75% of their last year’s full-time salary per the pay grade
• The average age of a Chicago Public wage earner is 55 years old
• A 55-year-old life expectancy is 80 years old today
• That is another 25 years of 50% to 75% of the last year’s salary of the city worker taxpayers are liable for
• People’s lifespan keeps on getting longer and longer as time pass
• You now see how the city’s pension system is broken and comparable to a PONZI SCHEME
• More and more retirees are retiring with strong lucrative lifetime pensions
• Retirees are living longer and longer
• The city needs to replace retiring workers
• Newly hired workers get the same type of pension as the one’s retirees go
• The pension debt keeps on getting bigger and bigger
• The city keeps increasing taxes to pay its bills

Taxpayers get fed up and they are fleeing the city to an area with lower taxes, lower cost of living, and affordable housing.

Coronavirus Outbreak Devastated Chicago Housing Market: Crime, Riots, Tax Increases, Defunding The Police

Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s far-left ideology may be hurting her ability to lead thus hurting Chicagoans.

• Chicago has a reputation for financial irresponsibility and mismanagement
• The majority of violent crimes in Chicago were limited in the South and West Sides
• However, George Floyd death in Minneapolis stirred up protests and riots in most major U.S. cities including Chicago
• Groups like Black Lives Matter (BLM) took advantage of George Floyd’s death by cops and used this to loot business districts in downtown Chicago
• The surprising thing is Lori Lightfoot joined the BLM march to show she supported groups like BLM
• However, this all backfired on Lightfoot and BLM members turned on Lightfoot and even protested in front of her house
• Many residents in Downtown Chicago had their lobby’s broken into by protesters
• Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost due to looters
• Many renters in Chicago called it enough is enough and started leaving the city either to the suburbs or out of state
• The coronavirus pandemic has tested the prosperity of Chicago’s downtown
• Mayor Lightfoot issued a directive not to arrest protesters, rioters, and members of BLM

Chicago’s crime rate was skyrocketing daily.

Poor Leadership And Financial Mismanagement

You really need basic business skills to run a city, county, state, the federal government.

• You cannot spend more than what you take in
• You need to live within your means
• Look at other thriving lower-taxed cities and see what they are doing.
• Treat your constituents like your customers.
• The mayor and city council members need to realize constituents can always leave to other cities if they do not like how the city is run
• The key is to increase your tax base by having more residents and businesses move to Chicago
• However, there is no other city in the nation that raises taxes multiple times a year
• The city is never going to cap taxes
• Property taxes in the city is going up again to help pay the huge budget deficit Chicago is facing
• Who is going to move to the highest taxed city where taxes keep on going up

Very basic business 101.

Chicago Homeowners Seeing They Homes Drop In Value Due To High Property Taxes

High property taxes mean lower home values:

• While other cities throughout the nation are enjoying handsome home value appreciation, Chicago homeowners are seeing declining home values and increasing property taxes year after year
• Lightfoot, who took office in May 2019, has proven herself as being incompetent and a poor leader
• Chicago has the highest tax rate in the nation
• Chicago’s property taxes keep on increasing with no maximum property tax cap
• The high property taxes in Chicago are hurting senior homeowners
• These senior homeowners without a mortgage can no longer afford to live in their homes
• The property taxes on a 1,500 square foot 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom single family home can be more than $15,000 in many parts of the city
• The same 1,500 square foot home’s property taxes were $3,000 back in 2000
• So in 20 years, the property taxes on the above house went from $3,000 to $15,000 per year

Many senior homeowners are forced to sell their home and exit out of the city. 

Everything costs more in Chicago. Chicago has high city taxes where if you go outside city limits, you do not have to pay. Lightfoot keeps on increasing taxes to meet the city’s budget. She does not seem to have any creativity in raising revenues by attracting new businesses and families to Chicago. An increased tax base can be accomplished by enticing more businesses and individuals to located to Chicago. However, who in their right minds would migrate to a city that has been poorly managed, keeps on increasing taxes, the highest property tax rates in the nation, and high crime with a mayor who wants to defund the Chicago Police Department. The riots and looting following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police caused tens of millions of dollars in damages to small businesses. Many of these businesses had no insurance. Lightfoot politicized the coronavirus pandemic by ordering extended executive stay at home orders. Lightfoot is 5’5″ 500 pounder JB Pritzker’s sidekick. JB Pritzker has issued a second statewide executive stay at home order forbidding indoor dining. Pritzker ordered all non-essential indoor places of business shutdown. For many business owners, this second round of lockdown order by the governor and mayor is the nail in the coffin where they have to close permanently. Two-thirds of Illinoisans work for small businesses. This is a developing story at Gustan Cho Associates. We will keep our viewers updated on new developments.