The Danville area's residents feel the pain of selling out because of the nation's lowest median house price.

Reports show that a four-bedroom, two-story house with fireplace on a tree-shaded street for $54,900. A three-bedroom brick ranch, with attached garage, for $79,900. Property values are declining in many smaller midwestern towns that are facing industrial decline, and nowhere is that more evident than here.

According to first quarter statistics from the National Association of Realtors, the prices for homes in the Hoopeston/Danville area have dropped 12% in the last year, representing the sharpest decline of any metropolitan market in the country. The median price for a house is now $52,500, the lowest in the nation.

If a comparison is made, the median price for the overall Chicago metropolitan region is $263,600. In Hoopeston, a community known for its annual Sweet Corn Festival and beauty pageant, the downward spiral is the equivalent to winning the ugly duckling award. RuthAnn Amarteifio, who formerly lived in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood, moved to Hoopeston 2 1/2 years ago and runs the Books & More store on Market Street in the downtown area.

Buyers have included retired Chicago police officers and retirees from the former Ameritech. Because Hoopeston is only about 85 miles from Chicago's south suburbs, a few hardy souls have attempted to commute to jobs in the metropolitan area, he said. But most Chicago home buyers look for a second home, at least until they retire.

The Hoopeston/Danville area's steep slippage in the first quarter was followed by that of South Bend, Ind., where prices fell 10 percent, and Akron, down 6.3 percent, the NAR said. Overall, home prices increased nationally by a modest 4.2 percent for the quarter, compared with the year-prior period. Hoopeston's problem, according to home seller Tony Freeland, is that for many decades the city was a powerful industrial center, with factories on all sides.

By M. Sese
http://realestatepress.org