Does anyone think that Peoria or Peoria county is causing too ma

@MadScientist :
Oh I have many thoughts on the subject. There's a clear trail of some properties having code violations and being forced thru court only to have the house suddenly catch fire and code enforcement rush in to do an emergency demo order.Yet a house that was hit by a vehicle and clearly a safety issue remains standing. I can go on and on.

Many of the ones I have seen demo'd were because of serious structural deficiencies that were economically not viable to be remedied. For the city to get to the point of demoing something there is a long history attempts to get the owners to make good on maintaining the property.To leave an empty deteriorating house is an attractive nuisance. It has become a serious problem here in Springfield. Homeless folks are breaking in and turning them into drug dens with a series of house fires following. They are wrecking these properties further.

Are a majority of these houses individually owned or owned by a corporation?

Ultimately it is always an economic decision... anything can be fixed if you throw enough money at it. At what point does it just make sense to demo it and maybe build new? Over the years empty lots have been sold and had new houses built on them. It is perhaps a good thing that it is a slow process. I do believe Peoria makes every attempt to try to induce the owners to maintain their properties but sometimes that just is not possible. The south side is littered with abandoned properties whose owners just walk away. For them, it is not worth any money to fix them up

@skutfarcus : There was a point in the not so distant past where financial equity and aspiring investors were buying up properties sight unseen all willy nilly. Then the sober realities kicked in once they actually visited. We allow companies... like even simple LLCs to buy rental property... its only those companies who are responsible. If they are illiquid... well blight happens.

@skutfarcus :
Most if not all of the vacant fires where an emergency demo was ordered right away have been individually owned and all different individuals.

@Mahkno : Except in the city of Peoria, if you exclude the new developments or higher income properties, the number of new construction homes that sold through an agent over the last several years is almost zero. Nothing is rebuilt in the lower income areas.@Mahkno : They way I see it is the fundamental problem with this is a lot of those real estate purchases were purchased using borrowed money. It's easy to make bad decisions when someone else provides the money.

@MadScientist : Its complicated.... but mostly because builders will lose their shirts on the investment. If it costs a minimum of $200,000 to build a house.... are you going to make that back down there? Nope. Banks are probably reluctant to finance that too. So even if you wanted to pull the trigger, the banks are going to refuse the financing.I really think it is a case where the city needs to contrive of a large scale clearing of an area... like they did years ago along MacArthur Blvd... and rebuild at scale. Level it all, replat, start over. People will complain because its 'gentrifying'....

@MadScientist : If you had a couple $100,000 on hand...and only a couple $100k, would you build there? Would you move there? Most of the folks on the south side don't have that kind of money. If they did, the area would not have the problems it does.

Also... I don't think Peoria or the County are being overly strict at all... I think it is quite the opposite. The lax inspections have led to the deterioration of housing stock. Peoria used to have robust intrusive rental inspections... now...they self report. The bar is pretty low.

I'm guessing that some people bought these houses at prices and ways that made it cheaper than renting. Until they needed repairs/upkeep.

Bring the people but you need to provide for them as well. Smoke shops and fast-food restaurants gas stations and those downtown bars.

@skutfarcus :
I think that goes with anyone, any house. I know I've put as much money back into my house as I paid for it 35 years ago. Yes, some of it was to change things to personal taste like painting walls a different color, but there also have been plenty of plumbing, leaky basement walls, new roof, upgrade electrical, etc. issues. I think a lot of houses on the SS and to some extent EB and North Valley, the housing was cheap enough to buy, but not enough money available to maintain properly.

@AntiRanchDrssng : That's almost 40 years, which is about the amount of time it takes to pay for the full value of your home with property taxes around here.@Mahkno : That's the problem. Spend $200,000 to build a house that sells for $150,000, or spend $200,000 to build a house outside of Peoria or in another state that sells for $230,000. Which do you do? The only new homes being built in Peoria are in higher income developments where money isn't an issue and $12,000 per year for property tax isn't a problem.I remember playing Sim City and setting the taxes above a certain amount to where people started leaving. Eventually the population reached 0 and the economy collapsed.Every time the property tax is increased the value of real estate drops. In theory at some point in an extreme case the property tax could be so high that value of real estate approaches zero. You would buy what is normally a $150,000 home in a different State that has $1875 per year tax and 30 year $625/mo mortgage, but in Peoria you would get the same house for $5,000 and pay $9135/yr in property tax and have a 30 year $20/mo mortgage. The cost of ownership for the first 30 years is the same. In the other State you would have a $150,000 house at the end, and in Peoria you would have a $5,000 house that you might unload where people sell time shares for $1.That's why people sell time shares for $1. The upkeep (property tax) is so high the value of the property approaches zero. Peoria could become like a time share property management company that charges so much upkeep that the properties are worth zero.

Apartments in the warehouse district are set to add more homes over the next few years. What more could you ask for? Just keep taxing the residents until they can't afford to live there anymore.