Danville, IL -- the rest of the story ... spill! (Chicago: section 8, for sale)

[Xhoosier]

AOL just posted median home prices in 154 cities across the US, and Danville, IL was the lowest one. I read it here in my Denver home and remembered that back around the mid and late sixties I used to spend a few weeks in/around Danville every summer when my aunt was married to a guy who worked a hog farm in the area.

Hog farms stink, but I do have other more idyllic memories of strawberry picking, fishing along a river of rocky shelves after catching crawdads for bait, eating fresh shucked sweet corn from the garden, exploring the old four story farmhouse his employer housed him in (you had to go up a 'secret' staircase through a third floor bedroom closet to get to the fly infested fourth floor), and watching my uncle-in-law chase and wrestle boars in the big old barn a few yards from the house.

I've been in Colorado since 1979, survived the drug culture, got married in my early thirties, raised two daughters, and worked residential construction for most of my life. I would now love to buy a few acres of land in the Colorado or Arizona mountains, build a comfortable house and a sizable pole barn and turn wrenches on my dirtbikes and old BMWs and Fiats in it (the barn, not the house) between building some furniture and stuff in a well equipped wood shop ---- but the $400K price tag to do so would be beyond my means. And I'm tired of living in my now almost fully remodelled Denver home with its lack of work space and harrasment from the city whenever I have a couple of projects in the driveway.

I find that I'm a bit of a 'redneck' in some senses, even if not in the racist, hippie-hating sense that I used to fear would mean some beer swilling guys in a PU truck would kick my butt and cut my hair for me on principle. A lot of my hair fell out since then anyway, and what's left I cut short a couple of times a year. I've got a live and let live attitude, and like to see myself as a little of a modern cowboy without the requirement that I enjoy modern country and western music --- because I don't. I don't want to join the KKK, but I don't want to join the ACLU either.

But I would let a guy who came by to date my daughter know that I have guns and shovels, even if I got down on my knees later to pray I never had to use them ... and probably never would.

But, on to Danville!

I looked up Danville after reading the AOL piece. I didn't much remember it from my pre-teen years. The map didn't look bad at all. A lake. A river. A ball team. My younger daughter, who is still at home, plays competitive softball. It didn't look bad at all.

But then I read posts, and all of the referrrences to Danville seemed to be negative, even if none of them made it clear why they were negative. I knew I needed more information. Exactly what is wrong with the place?

It sort of seems to me to be a place I might find an old, big farmhouse with a few acres and a barn --- someplace I could live a more constrained version of my earlier dream, improving the house and barn to create the same kind of little homestead, even if no mountains surrounded it.

Please tell me why Danville isn't the place for it.

Steve

[Paxtonian]

Danville's woes boil down to one thing- economics. They had one major employer in town, a GM casting plant. When that closed, things quickly went south- people couldn't make payments on their mortgages, or they couldn't afford repairs on their properties. So, you ended up with a large number of abandoned homes in neighborhoods with a lot of run down properties. With a decline in house values came some interesting side effects. Mayor Daley of Chicago closed down a large proportion of the public housing up there and many hundreds of these former residents migrated Downstate. Most of these folk are not all that hard working, thus you've now got a large chunk of the population on welfare OR who make their way in life in a criminal fashion. As for your dream, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a place a ways out from town, though if I were doing it I'd find somewhere up by Hoopeston. Hoopeston is also economically depressed (the town's main employer, which was a cannery, shut down) but the difference there was the town didn't get run down, and they're doing things to bring jobs back. One can buy a liveable house in Hoopeston for about $20K, if one looks around. Anyway, go take a look at these sites for press reports about the Danville/Hoopeston area: http://www.news-gazette.com and http://www.illinoishomepage.net .

[Drover]

Paxtonian pretty much covers it, though I think he overestimates the impact of the public housing upheaval in Chicago. Danville's economic and social decline was well underway before public housing reform was in full swing. Wanna know what's up with Danville? Just read the lyrics to the Billy Joel song "Allentown," only substitute "Danville" for Allentown and "GM" for "Bethlehem Steel."

[pandagal]

Danville has had an unfortunate history and they are trying to boost the economic situation but that probably won't take effect for several years. So at this time I would reccomend a smaller town. If you want to be over in that area, Homer is a quiet town where you could find exactly what you're looking for, lake and all and you could still pop over to Kickapoo for fun. Peace and quiet is easily obtainable with close proximity to champaign-urbana for all your civilized needs by just about any small town west of urbana. There are usually plenty of farms for sale well below your 400k issue. Many have already been updated or you can find one that needs work. You can buy land or a house with land and an out building or two. I would go to realtor.com and put in Homer or as suggested above Hoopeston, and you can add surrounding areas to your search. You can look for land too, so you can get an idea of what is available and research the area if you find something you like. It's a buyer's market so now is a good time to buy.

Good Luck!

[rgb123]

I think for your purposes....the Danville area suits you (It doesn't sound like your looking for a new career/job). I have also considered it in the past (a job offer a few years ago...in economic development of course) but it was one of the few places I could buy a house right out of college! I dont think danville is really that bad. I did not live there but I have driven through it plenty of times. there were some areas that I would not hang out at...

but I think there are probably a lot of old-timers still there holding down the fort. They do have grocery stores and fast food restaraunts (its not completley shut down -- and will probably rebound eventually since its so cheap to live there, and people like us consider a move).

I'd agree that you should check out the surrounding area -- you could probably find a more rural location to build your dreams!!! It would be so much more inexpensive than where you are now and perhaps fun, in the urban decay pioneering spirit (I mean....Danville itself....will be interesting at least). But you could always do your grocery shopping in nearby champaign, and there it is a different world.

The good thing about Danville -- your pretty close to both Champaign and Indianapolis -- you have some outlets and there is a pretty nice state park near Danville too that I have been to...cant remember the name of it (kickapoo?)but its a recovered mining area. So it SEEMS very hilly and like there is some real topography there!

[Steve-o]

Drover, you could substitute "Danville" for "Allentown", but what about the line "were waiting here in Allentown, for the Pennsylvania we never found"? LOLOLOL Illinois has only 3 syllables, whereas Pennsylvania has 4, that would sound dorky. LOLOL

As for Danville? Read what everyone else has said. I only went through their 2 times, and both times I wished I had a remote control to fast forward myself through that city. Homes are cheap for a reason, thats not a place youd want to move to. Based on what you say you like, you might want to check out Galena, IL or Oregon, IL.

[sonicreducer]

Danville is a weird place, and I guess it is a story pretty characteristic to the rust belt. What the others have said here is right on--it's a blue collar city that has lost it's livelihood several times over. Most recently is was the loss of the GM plant, but Danville also used to be a big railroad center, and a big brick-making town.

I grew up near Danville (in Homer), so I'm familiar with the area. I always thought Danville had a lot more natural beauty than Champaign--they have a river, and as someone else pointed out, they actually have hills and a fair number of trees. There are parts of town that will remind you that Danville was once a great little city with a lot of industrial money. There are lots of neat old mansions, and some interesting historic buildings (like an old theater or 2), but most haven't been properly kept up.

My folks live near Georgetown now, so I get to Danville about every time I go home for a visit. I'm never scared to go there, but it does depress me sometimes, to see how ramshackle it has became since I was a kid in the 70s/80s. I honestly know next to nothing about the neighborhoods there, so I couldn't say where one would want to live. I'm really only familiar with the commercial areas, and the main streets. But as someone else mentioned, you wouldn't want to buy a house actually IN Danville if you wanted a farmhouse--you'd want to look for something in the country. I imagine the reason Danville's house prices were so low in that article you were reading may have been due to abandoned/seriously derelict property priced extremely low. If you're looking at a house in the country, you could probably still find a good deal, but it wouldn't be as cheap as urban Danville stuff.

I would imagine you could get a cheap house in the country, but you should probably know that central IL farmland is not cheap.

Another area you might want to consider is across the border near Covington, Indiana. It's the Wabash River valley area, and is pretty (not far from Danville, or Lafayette, IN or even Indianapolis). I know Indiana has cheaper taxes than Illinois, so that may be a benefit....

[M TYPE X]

Originally Posted by sonicreducer

I'm never scared to go there, but it does depress me sometimes

This is key. A lot of dead rustbelt cities are very unsafe, but Danville is not exactly a hellish ghetto like Flint or Youngstown (which, of course, were much larger cities with many more people that got thrown down hard).

[benwa51879]

Danville isn't so bad but the influx of people from Chicago definately has made a big difference. I spent 28 years in Danville and can tell you that It's not the best place to raise kids and the economy stinks. However it is in a great area as far as Kickapoo State Park and being close to Indy and Champaign. As far as a farm for sale, my Grandparents have a 200 year old 2 story farmhouse with a two car garage and a pole barn on the property. It sits on 2 1/2 acres and is one mile over the Indiana border (about 4 miles from Danville) I actually grew up there and it's a beautiful plot of land. They've been trying to sell it for $265,000 but havent had any takers because of the lousy real estate market. Anyway, I would never move into town unless it was on the North-end but would definately live outside of town. The only reason we moved is because there is a much better job market where we are now. If anyone else wants some honest answers about Danville I'd be happy to help. E-mail me @ benwa51879@yahoo.com. I grew up there and still keep an eye on how my hometown is doing.

[aaron7927]

It's still not too bad if you live up north if you HAVE to move here. Don't buy a house anywhere south of Voorhees St. or you will be in the ghetto. The only apartment complexes left in the entire city that are not full of Chicago Section 8 individuals are on Liberty Lane.