Rockford in national spotlight with hottest housing market in the US

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Rockford is America’s top real estate market, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“There’s a tremendous amount of people that want to move here and people that are living here that want to purchase homes,” said Berkshire Hathaway Relator Dianne Parvin.

Rockford’s housing market is burning, leaving realtors scrambling to find homes quickly enough for their clients.

“Sellers are getting so many offers on their property, new buyers. Young families don’t have an opportunity when you’re facing ten, 20, 30 contracts at a time, the best one wins,” said Parvin. “So if you have 20 people that are constantly putting in offers on property, you know that there’s a demand for the housing.”

Parvin has sold real estate in Rockford for 50 years, though prices have jumped over 50% since last year, the largest in the nation. The average Rockford home is still nearly $200,00 less than the U.S. average. She said that affordability is driving record demand.

“The prices are around 200,000. The increase that we have has just been tremendous and it’s because of the lack of housing,” said Parvin. “We need good housing. We need more housing. We have such a demand for it here, like I said before, I had 100 homes for sale during the bad times and now one house sells in an hour.”

Mayor Tom McNamara said the city is aware of the housing need, and is working to meet the exploding demand with programs to incentivize building.

“If anyone wants to build a new residential unit in the city of Rockford, we’re going to waive your property taxes for three years. We’re going to waive your water connection fee. We’re going to waive all permit fees. We’re going to waive your plan review fee,” said McNamara. “And by the way, if you do build that home and you happen to have a small family and you want those kids to go to college, we’re going to help pay for those kids to get a four-year degree free of charge.”

He said it all reflects on the growth of the community.

“You’re living here in Rockford and we’re fortunate to have you. We need to continue to invest in our infrastructure, continue to remove blight, and create opportunities to redevelop the housing stock that’s currently there that may be dilapidated,” said McNamara. “And we need to urge more folks to build new homes. And that’s what we’re doing here at the city of Rockford.”

The mayor said a city study revealed the need for 3,500 to 9,000 new residential units to properly meet demand. Three new development agreements are currently being reviewed by city council.

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