Community leaders, realtors and city staff will discuss housing in Carbondale during a meeting this weekend.
Carbondale Study Circles, Neighborhood Action Group's annual Neighborhood Alliance Meeting will focus on issues regarding the City's housing market and stock.
Action group board member Daniel Presley says there are fewer homeowners in Carbondale. In fact since 2009, he says over 1,200 homes have converted from owner-occupied to rentals.
"If you compare us to all of our sister cities, that's Champaign, Urbana, Normal, Dekalb, Edwardsville, Charleston, we're at a 25% owner-occupied rate. The next highest one up is Urbana at 36% and it goes all the way up to almost 70% in Edwardsville."
Presley says part of the problem might be Jackson County's property taxes, which are ranked among the highest 15% in the country in relation to median income.
"Why is it so high in Carbondale? Part of the reason is because (of) SIU. I believe part of the conversation is going to turn to SIU, the fact that Jackson County is not pulling in significant taxes perhaps, we don't know why. But, for whatever reason, taxes here seem to be an impediment to some."
Presley says Saturday's meeting is just the start of meetings on housing in Carbondale.
"We'd like to draw people to talk about these issues, to see what we want to do and make a plan going forward. After that, we'll start planning our sort of community education and financial education, financial literacy programs."
The meeting to talk about these issues and more runs from 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Jan. 23 at First United Methodist Church in Carbondale. It's open to the public.
