Category Archives: Sociology

Win a cheaper single-family home via lottery in a Chicago suburb

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Many Americans would benefit from affordable single-family homes. The Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village set up a lottery for ten local residents to get one such unit:

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Inside a room at the Belvedere banquet hall in Elk Grove Village, 10 families got the chance to pick their new single-family home — priced below market rates and for village residents only — in a perhaps first-of-its-kind municipal housing initiative aimed at helping ease the housing affordability crisis…

The village bought the 2.5-acre site — the former Elk Grove Presbyterian Church property — for $965,000 in 2023, and recently sold it to the Mount Prospect-based Nicholas Family of Companies for $1 million. That recoups the village’s costs to purchase the site and tear down the church, officials say.

The deal also allows the homes to be “moderately priced,” officials said, at between $466,000 and $508,000…

Fourteen showed up to the lottery, and 10 of them picked homes on Saturday.

Names were drawn one by one. Each potential buyer had five minutes to pick from the available lots.

Then they signed purchase agreements and related forms and gave the developer a $2,500 cashier’s check. A year from now, they will be the first residents in the Tonne Grove development, where 20 single-family homes will be built on the northwest corner of Tonne Road and Elk Grove Boulevard.

Several quick thoughts in response:

  1. The property became available because of the closing of a church. According to the still-existing Facebook page, the church held its last service in June 2023 and the building was demolished in April 2024. This is one potential fate for closed churches: the land is redeveloped for other purposes.
  2. The lottery method reminds me of a framing of the documentary Waiting For Superman where families are in a lottery to get into desirable schools. In both, the use of a lottery could invite questions: is this a public good that should only be available by lottery?
  3. It is interesting that only 14 people showed up to the lottery. Granted, there were numerous conditions potential homebuyers had to meet. I imagine similar lotteries throughout suburbia could invite many more participants.
  4. Was this a success? Will other suburbs copy this?

The Washington, D.C. exurb that attracts politicians

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American suburbs are supposed to provide a respite from the big city. One small town outside Washington, D.C. provides that for politicians:

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Set in Virginia’s rolling countryside an hour west of Washington, Middleburg has one traffic light and roughly 750 residents, a majority of whom voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. The town is known for horseback riding and hunting, fences made of stacked stone and long winding driveways leading to multimillion-dollar homes…

At any given time, an array of dignitaries — senators, congressional leaders, diplomats — can be spotted window shopping on Washington Street, Middleburg’s main commercial corridor, where decorative lawn jockeys stand sentry outside a few businesses. The well-heeled can also be found at the Salamander Resort, next door to Wolver Hill, where suites go for as much as $1,100 a night.

Over the years, at least four presidents have owned homes or visited the town, including Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan and Obama. The Kennedys built a home in Middleburg in the early 1960s, a 167-acre estate they called Wexford that Jackie Kennedy sold after the president’s death, though shestill visited after leaving the White House to ride horses with her children. Elizabeth Taylor and her husband Sen. John Warner lived in Middleburg until their divorce. Robert Duvall resided on a 360-acre farm in the area for several decades until his death earlier this year. In April, Queen Camilla visited a horse farm in town during King Charles III’s trip to the United States.h

Middleburg is a small town at the edge of Loudon County, once a sparsely populated county. In 1960, Loudon County had 24,549 residents, in 1990 it had 86,129 residents, and in 2020 it had 420,959 residents. In other words, Middleburg might have been “the country” at some point but now is part of a large and growing metropolitan region.

This puts pressure on communities like Middleburg. Can they keep a way of life or local character that has been present for a long time? When developers come with proposals, what is the response of local officials and residents? The suggestion here is that the small town might be threatened by Vice President, of a locally disliked party, rents in the community. As long as he does not bring more development and residents, the small town can probably wait him out.

More Americans making micro-moves?

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The Americans who are moving may be moving shorter distances:

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In the first four months of 2026, bookings for help with a partial move were up 37% from the same period last year, while short-distance relocations jumped 29%, according to data shared by Taskrabbit. As well, same-day bookings for moving help jumped 19%.

These stats indicate that more people are moving smaller loads faster across fewer miles. In other words, micro-moves are on the rise…

One impetus for the rapidity of many micro-moves is the lack of affordable housing and the need to “pounce” when the right living situation presents itself.

“We’re seeing a rise in same-day and next-day moving requests where people find an apartment online, get approved quickly, and need to move immediately before someone else rents it,” says Jean St. Felix, owner of JM Moving in Nashville, TN. “Speed has become just as important as price.”…

“A micro-move doesn’t necessarily mean someone is moving into a small space. It means the volume of belongings being moved is smaller and the process is more streamlined,” says Friedman. This is what happens as people do the math and realize it’s cheaper to replace ready-to-assemble furniture than it is to move it.

It sounds like several things are coming together here:

  1. Fewer long-distance moves.
  2. People owning or holding on to fewer possessions so there is less to move.
  3. More concerns about housing costs.
  4. Websites and platforms that quickly connect people moving and movers.
  5. The costs of replacing certain household items are relatively low.
  6. Smaller households.

If all this is correct, people in the United States are moving but doing so in different ways compared to the past. This is hard for me to imagine but could we get to a point where a household in the United States moves and only fills a large van or a large pickup truck with all their belongings?

How much elected suburban leaders make, 2026 North Shore edition

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What is the salary for elected suburban leaders in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs?

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Voters may be surprised to learn that in Evanston, the position to oversee a $400 million-plus municipal government and a city of about 76,000 people comes with an annual salary of a little over $25,000…

“I don’t think anybody expects somebody in Evanston to support a family on this salary, so whether they have other employment or other wealth or, as in my case, right now they have a spouse who works full-time, I think certainly the expectation is there’s some other reason that they’re able to stay afloat.”…

Evanston is not unique in this regard. Municipalities across the North Shore tend to offer modest compensation for mayoral and other top elected offices, begging similar questions about who can afford to serve…

And Hansen said research suggests that low-pay and unpaid municipal positions tend to have less competition and therefore are more conducive to a higher rate of diversity among elected leaders who come from a wider range of backgrounds.

Historically, however, even “poorly paid positions still tend to be primarily held by white-collar professionals for reasons that aren’t directly related to the salary offered by the office,” like professionals being able to more easily raise campaign money or because they have “greater autonomy over their time, both to campaign for office and to serve if they win,” Hansen said.

Local elected officials have important roles in their suburban communities. They help make decisions in communities, they are at events in the community, and they serve as figureheads for the community.

Hinted at but not stated explicitly in the article is that there are local government staff that do a lot of day to day work. They are not typically elected.

You can see some of this dynamic at local meetings. Say there is a new development proposed for the community. Elected officials have roles and government staff have roles.

It would be interesting to put the question to local voters: should local government staff and/or local officials have higher salaries? Present the argument to the voters, including the effects on who might run or how this might affect local services and decision-making.

The inches of rain that would make flooding in Chicago likely

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Amid summer storms, here is how much water could lead to flooding in Chicago:

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Designed many decades ago, Chicago’s sewers can handle 2 inches of rain in a 24-hour period before flooding becomes likely. The storms of 2023 dumped 8 to 9 inches of rain over short periods of time. About a month’s worth of rain was dumped across Chicago during the recent July Fourth weekend.

This is a clear statement of how much rain Chicago’s system can handle. At this point, Chicago has been incorporated almost 200 years. Throughout that history, residents and the local government has worked to address infrastructure needs. Built along a lake and a river, water has always been part of the equation. Access to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic plus access to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico provided opportunities. Flooding, shorelines, weather, sewer systems, and drinking water provided challenges. With millions of people living in the region plus millions more passing through, water infrastructure has been important from the beginning.

As this article notes, efforts to address current water issues have to contend with the decades of previous efforts. Whether constructing massive reservoirs or putting in block by block water storage, the work takes place on top of existing systems. And if development patterns change or weather patterns change or new options become available, efforts can go beyond maintenance to reconfiguring how a large region deals with storm water.

Communities preparing for possible property tax reductions in Florida

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With the possibility that Florida residents will soon vote to significantly lower property taxes, communities in the states are trying to get ready:

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The proposal is spurring urgent responses from local governments faced with the prospect of plummeting tax revenue. Cities and counties are scrambling to prepare for a potential overhaul of how they pay for all sorts of services, from policing to pothole repairs.

Local officials across the state say the issue is dominating discussion in commission meetings and budget workshops. Among the measures they have taken so far: freezing hiring and capital projects, planning possible service cuts and floating proposals to increase other fees and taxes to offset the shortfall…

In the 2027-28 fiscal year, the Florida changes would reduce property-tax revenue in the state overall by nearly $5 billion, according to the Office of Economic and Demographic Research, a research arm of the legislature. That would increase to $8.8 billion in 2028-29 and $10.8 billion in 2030-31.

The amounts would vary widely for individual counties, with a large one like Miami-Dade projected to lose $304 million in the first year and a small one like Okeechobee expected to lose $3.7 million, according to an analysis by the Florida Association of Counties. Suburban counties with high proportions of homestead properties would face the sharpest exposure, and economically distressed small counties would be the least equipped to respond, the study said.

Americans generally do not like the idea of high property taxes. They like the idea of homeownership but do not always like the idea they should pay more taxes on something they own.

At the same time, this tax helps fund many of the local amenities and services Americans benefit from and participate in. When looking at amenities about communities when making choices about where to live or when discussing local features and amenities they like, property taxes likely contribute. This includes schools, parks, and police and fire departments.

The tradeoffs I wonder if Americans are willing to make: either or both (1) lower levels of local amenities and services and (2) less local control over local services and amenities for lower property taxes. Immediate financial benefits for property owners but a loss of quality of life? How this plays out in Florida might help

Suburban reasons for the prevalence and expenses of youth sports

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Here are some thoughts about how the suburbanization of the United States might be related to two concerns I have read/seen/heard multiple times in recent years: (1) most kids sports activity takes place in structured leagues and programs with a big rise in travel sports and (2) participation in these structured sports is expensive. There are lots of explanations for this but few take into account the setting where a majority of Americans live and how this has shaped these patterns. Are the sports opportunities kids get connected to suburban lifestyles?

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  1. Sprawling suburban landscapes can make it hard for kids to get together and just play. On one hand, suburban yards would seem to provide ample opportunities. And there are parks and school grounds scattered across suburbs. But much of suburban life requires driving and until kids have licenses, they need other people to drive them. Put this together with fears for safety in suburbia (see Neighborhood of Fear by historian Kyle Riismandel for how this happened) and kids don’t get together to play sports with each other outside. In how many suburbs today could the baseball team depicted in The Sandlot play regularly and where would those games take place?
  2. Suburbs suggest a certain social class standing and suburban households desire that their kids are successful or get ahead. Instead of playing sports for fun and to develop as a person, sports are a possible pathway to success and fame. Partaking of these sports options provides room to share about kids’ successes. And plenty of suburban households have disposable income to make this happen. Why play around when you can pay for travel sports and lessons and camps and equipment? This reminded me of Richard Reeves’ book Dream Hoarders where the top 20% of American earners look to secure advantages for themselves and their kids.
  3. Local governments and private companies are willing to provide these sports opportunities. They can claim this is what residents and customers want. And there is money to generate or be made from people willing to pay. As the trust Americans have in more traditional institutions have decreased, suburbanites are willing to invest time and money in sports leagues and programs where they might feel they have more control over outcomes. And why not rep a local team or club rather than wade into national polarization?

Another way to put this: could the United States have such a system of youth sports if it was not a suburban country?

Prediction of 25 years until median American house worth $1 million

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A recent projection looked at how much American homes will be worth in a few decades:

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The median U.S. home price will likely hit $1 million around the year 2050, when the millennial generation is hitting the traditional age of retirement, a top housing economist has predicted.

“Essentially, in about 25 years the national median home price will be a million dollars,” Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors®, said at a conference in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. “It may be hard to envision that, but back in 1990, the national median price was $90,000.”…

Last month, the national median sales price for existing homes was nearly $430,000. Yun used multiple scenarios to project home prices out into the future, and says each scenario pointed to roughly the same timeline to hit $1 million: about 25 years.

This makes sense over time as inflation continues. Compared to the past, houses and many other goods are more expensive.

But three factors might make this hard to swallow for a number of people:

  1. How much will incomes and wages keep up with the price increase of houses? Will housing be further out of reach by 2050? A million dollar price for a home will be easier for people to understand if pay keeps up with those values.
  2. There will be people in housing who remember the lower prices of the past and a good number who will benefit from them. Those who owned homes in 2026 will recall the median at $430k and wonder – and enjoy, if selling – the new median of $1 million. Just as those who lived in the early Levittowns saw their homes increase in value over the decades, so will those who bought homes in the early 2000s.
  3. Some places will have much higher median home values in 2050 compared to others. While this is true today, that gap may grow and highlight differences between metropolitan regions.

I wonder if the biggest consequence of this continued rise in home values will be that houses in the United States will be regarded first and foremost as investments. If the median value can double in 25 years just by owning it, this can shape who owns homes and how they treat them.

The Chicago area Deep Tunnel system worked in the most recent rains?

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The Chicago area was hit last week by numerous storms that dumped inches of rain. In a metropolitan area, where does all this rain water go? The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago described what happened in an email yesterday:

As the Chicago area grew on the shore of Lake Michigan and inland across swamps, prairie, and forests, where would all the water go? Urban development and suburban sprawl tends to flatten landscapes, eliminating natural settings that help drain water. Humans can adjust, adding retention ponds and drainage flows and permeable surfaces and setting aside some land to be open or “natural.”

The results are cited above. Multiple storms lead to inches of rain. The ground was soaked and storm sewers were full. The water has to go somewhere. Some of it ends up in a former quarry with over 7 billion gallons of water. Drivers who passed over the watery quarry posted pictures on social media. It also ends up in other reservoirs and in local waterways.

For the residents of the region, this hopefully led to fewer flooded streets and basements. (Though I saw plenty of pictures of this as well.) All that engineering and money hopefully drained the water away from everyday human activity. Water may be a precious resource but too much water can disturb metropolitan activity so the engineering and water mitigation efforts will continue.

The motorized vehicles that make American parades possible

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Numerous American communities held parades for July 4th. These parades are full of cars and motorized vehicles: they tow floats, they accompany walkers, and cars and vehicles (old and new) are on display.

Cars have dominated the American landscape for roughly a century. Before this, the United States had roads and animals and people could carry things along those roads. Parades happened prior to cars but it is hard to imagine parades today without motorized vehicles traveling the route. Yes, there are people involved that attendees may want to see but driving is essential to make the parade happen.

Take a recent parade I participated in. Most of the members of the group walked. We carried a banner in the front with the name of our organization and members of the group walked behind it. But we also had a truck with this that included large signs about the organizations, supplies, and a few people.

There were multiple vehicles in front of us in the parade. July 4th parades often feature local emergency vehicles; in our case, big fire trucks honked their way along. As shown above, there was a group with antique cars and trucks. Behind us, several sports cars inched forward, revving their engines while traveling at 3 mph. The vehicles themselves may symbolize American freedoms.

Or I recall the 2016 parade for the World Series winning Chicago Cubs. That event brought millions to Chicago. Could the players have walked through the city streets instead of taking a series of busses along the route? (Such busses are a common approach for championship parades.)

Marches and parades without vehicles can still happen. But in a country full of driving, cars and vehicles are part of and enable many processions.