Unemployment in Illinois is Bigger News Than the EX-Governor

   Your ability to make a telephone connection in Illinois now may determine if soon you will be living on the street (See Chicago Tribune column by: Mary Ellen Podmolik). She describes the Illinois method of allowing a person to continue receiving unemployment benefits.

In real estate we are very familiar with circumstances that arise when payments are not made ontime. Mortgagors or lessees who submit payment plans, so as to make modifications to their payment obligations, find their debt holders unsympathetic when these obligations are not adhered to.

As descrivbed in the Chicago Tribune article mentioned above, the inability of making a telephone connection may interupt your receipt of unemployment benefits. So what, if you are a week, ten days late. This means that other obligations are going to deteriorate, and the likelyhood of incurring additional charges escalates.

SO WHATS THE PROBLEM  TO US. These people are unemployed and how will that impact me?

The real estate industry over the  past fifteen years has been driven by the 2-income family, and you need to use both of their incomes to qualify for the house THAT THEY MUST HAVE. Now one of them is unemployed, but they have been holding their head above water via the receipt of the unemployment check. The unemployment check doesn't arrive as expected.  OOPS!

PAYMENT OBLIGATION NOT ONTIME- Late charges accrue or repayment plan has now been violated. Doesn't sound to bad, but this also happened before when they could not make the telephone connection due to a busy signal 2 month ago. The outcome may now be foreclosure/eviction because of a missed telephone call.

There is a simple cure, add more telephone lines to cut down the number of times that a busy signal is received. Did I failed to mention that this is Illinois (you may substitute your own state), and the state is $4 billion under water.Where is the money for more phone lines. No problem  .

The lack of available telephone connections may result in additional properties being dumped on top of those already nonperforming assets appearing in my market.

The state's unemployment office apparently has not ben told that there is an internet.