Editor’s Note
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Archive for July 29th, 2008

Prediction: Rockford home values will increase

Add comment July 29th, 2008

Prediction: Rockford home values will increase. That’s Rockford, as in “city of.” It might also include homes located, oh, say, 10 miles, from Rockford’s city limits. Maybe 20 if gas prices don’t get much higher.

Anyone watching demographic trends can make that prediction; the signs have been there for two decades, although maybe not so visible as they are now. Mark my words, though, within a decade, homeowners with a City of Rockford ZIP code or nearby are going to be very, very glad they pay city taxes. Oh, and we are all going to be pleased as punch we live in a “second tier city, near-but-not-part-of a major metropolitan area like Chicago. Finally, Rockford (and the Rock River Valley) are going to get some respect.

There are half a dozen trends to support my prediction: (1) increasing commuting costs, whether to work, school, entertainment or shopping; (2) existing infrastructure, like roads, building and airports; (3) existing tax-supported services, like fire, police, garbage, water, sewer, snow plowing; (4) easy access to education, health care, government and jobs; (5) cost and quality of living; and, ta-da, (6) aging baby boomers eager to downsize.

In short, living in Rockford — and liking it — will be the “done thing” as we head into the 2010s, and that’s going to protect and boost property values.

I wrote about this back in the middle 1990s when Rockford’s school desegregation lawsuit was the top headline. At the time, some folks were hyperventilating about  getting the heck out of Rockford, moving anywhere but here, and lauding the wonders of houses in open spaces with no property taxes. I wrote then that the time would come when the bill would come due: volunteer firefighters replaced with paid ones; skyrocketing costs to retro-fit infrastructures; schools packed to the walls and trailers out back; governments scrambling to find cash to cover the uncontrolled growth. Meanwhile, Rockford already had all those things in place.

Add now the cost of commuting and the recognition by boomers with aches and pains that make mowing a three-acre lawn unpleasant, and, now, it seems darn smart to have a house that’s less than 15 minutes from everything one needs, and whose lawn is manageable with a pair of scissors.

Despite the current challenges, transforming Rockford into the next decade’s vibrant regional center is well underway and has been for two decades at least. It hasn’t always been easy to see the successes, but they are there (think airport, think downtown revitalization, think extended bus routes, think stabilizing of tax rates and the ending of the deseg suit, think Coronado and the park district, think MetroCentre).

We can pooh-pooh all this, and many will. But those six trends are solidly in place. It’s tough out there now, but there’s hope for the future.