LAKE FOREST, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Lake Forest has seen a dramatic uptick in the number of people relocating to the northern suburb during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We've had over a thousand new families move to lake forest in the last 18 to 24 months,” said Mayor George Pandaleon.
The new families account for roughly 15 percent of the suburb’s total number of households.
Pandaleon told WBBM it came as a total surprise.
“We thought the market was going to shut down and we came up with a doomsday budget and just blew it out of the water last year,” added Pandaleon. “We did not anticipate that COVID-19 would cause people to have second thoughts about continuing to live in urban places.”
He attributes the surge to four things: space, schools, safety and savings.
“We have a very low tax rate,” he said. “An equivalent house here versus in some of our neighboring communities could have taxes as little as half of what it would be in a town just to our west.”
The mayor also noted the suburb’s real estate market was soft, meaning there was a large inventory that made it relatively easy for people to find a place to live.
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