Exasperated In Illinois (Champaign, Quincy, Charleston: apartments, condos, townhouses)

[Drover]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

Where in central Illinois is "subdivision hell" ? Are you talking about Chicagoland in northeastern Illinois?

Seen any of the new developments around Champaign, Bloomington and Peoria? Central Illinois is not immune to cookiecutterism.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by M TYPE X

Where in central Illinois is "subdivision hell" ? Are you talking about Chicagoland in northeastern Illinois?

Weak and below the belt.

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by Drover

Seen any of the new developments around Champaign, Bloomington and Peoria? Central Illinois is not immune to cookiecutterism.

Sure, but they are nowhere as bad as those in real metropolitan areas like Chicago, Cleveland, or Detroit, or worse, in the godforsaken cities of the Sunbelt.

I think Champaign-Urbana needs more growth! Then it can be truly as cool (this means expensive and trendy) as Ann Arbor.

Bloomington-Normal and Peoria are great places to live. What, you want all the cities of midstate to be like Danville or Decatur? Yuck.

[Drover]

The crap I've seen going up downstate is just as bland as the crap going up around here. The only difference is in scale -- the volume of crap going up is roughly proportionate to the metro area it's going up in. Another difference I see is that there are proportionally fewer townhome developments going up in the downstate areas than there are up here. But the more expensive real estate gets down there, the more townhome developments you'll start seeing.

[pandagal]

Yikes! Not sure when you were in Champaign last, but oodles of town homes here. Everywhere...even in the expensive neighborhoods. It seems like they are building more town homes than houses. Most of the new neighborhoods have town homes in one section and houses in an another. Some even have town homes on one side of the street and homes on the other....and duplexes...don't get me started. I just want to know who is going to buy all these things.

But aside from the housing o' plenty, it is a pretty nice place. And there are lots of things for the art lover to do between the two colleges and art galleries. We have alot of artsy people and little niches for them to hang out.

[Drover]

I'm actually in Champaign a lot. Both my wife and myself have immediate family there. I've seen downhouses and duplexes and what-not; I guess I just remember seeing more actual homes than townhomes, especially compared to the developments going up around here, or at least those developments that aren't McMansion Hell.

As for who would buy these things... well, people who want a starter home and particularly want new construction, but can't quite afford a newer single-family home. (And believe it or not, the demand is there; smaller farm towns are depopulating and people are moving into the cities, including Chambana.) Especially around here, a young couple just getting started can't really afford a single-family home no matter how old or new any more unless they're making six figures right off the bat.

[Steve-o]

Is it just me, or are the cookie cutter homes up here in Chicagoland much better looking that those in our southern buddies' towns? Just an opinion....

[Drover]

Hmm.... not really.

[pandagal]

Yeah, I agree with Drover there...the houses down here are just as swell as they are up there...just a little lower priced...but we have many o' million dollar ones too.

Just a quick note on some of these smaller towns...many around champaign are actually sprouting. Fisher, Philo, Villa Grove, Tolono, Mansfield, all places that are starting to rebuild and have new subdivisions going up. Honestly I think that since Chicago is sending a good portion of their chapter 8 folks down here, many city folk are heading for the country!

[Drover]

Actually, according to the 2005 census estimate, Villa Grove and Mansfield actually lost population over the last five years and Fisher gained all of seven people. As for the rest, what they all have in common is that they are within easy striking distance of Chambana, and they are starting to be seen as an alternative to the rising real estate prices in the city. Mahomet of course has been going bonkers for a while now, and I wouldn't be surprised if Mansfield came to be seen as the cheaper alternative to Mohamet, which used to be the cheaper alternative to Chambana but isn't so cheap any more. But all these places would probably be slowly dying if they weren't within easy commuting distance of Chambana. Compare, for instance, to Sydney, Royal, Ogden, Filthian (erm, pardon me, I meant Fithian), Homer, et cetera, which are all only a little further away from Chambana and are all still, to varying degrees, basically decaying, empty shells. My wife's family is actually situated in St. Joseph, which is another of the nearby small boom-towns. I've noticed another class of people who are moving out there: Erstwhile city-folks who are trying to live their Green Acres fantasy but can't fully let go of the city. For them, Ogden, Homer, Royal, Sydney, etc., are too far beyond their comfort zone, both geographically and culturally.