By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner | Wirepoints
Illinois lawmakers continue to complain about the lack of housing across the state, in particular affordable housing. “We must build more housing in every Illinois community from Cairo to Chicago,” Gov. Pritzker said last year. But lawmakers have no one but themselves to blame for the shortage.
Their very own policies limit the growth of multi-family housing. Restrictive zoning laws mean fewer opportunities for more housing. And burdensome building regulations and permits – not to mention the country’s highest property taxes – make Illinois a national outlier in home building.
A Wirepoints analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data shows just how far behind Illinois has fallen. Just 44,600 net housing units have been added in the state since 2020 – an increase in the housing stock of less than 1%. That makes Illinois 49th in the nation when it comes to increasing its supply of homes.
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Lawmakers have reacted to the lack of market-built housing not by opening up more zones for multi-family housing or by reducing property taxes or by easing regulations – like getting rid of silly rules that impose restrictions on how landlords must handle security deposits – but by passing more affordable housing programs subsidized by the government.
These subsidized homes end up incredibly expensive because the projects must comply with increasingly more demanding regulations and zoning rules, including green energy, environmental rules and diversity requirements.
That’s led to eye-watering costs to build affordable housing in places like Chicago. The Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times and Crains have all complained about the massive per unit cost to build affordable housing in the Windy City.
The Sun-Times points out: “that’s much higher than market-rate developments and more than double the cost of new affordable units in Houston” and the Tribune noted: “a $38 million project cost amounted to an eye-popping $884,000 per taxpayer-subsidized rental unit, [compare that to] an existing 21-unit building nearby on the market now for $150,000 per unit.”
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