City of Bloomington leaders contemplate solutions to terrifying reality of housing market [Video]

BLOOMINGTON (25News Now) – Alarming data about Bloomington’s housing market has revealed a need for thousands of new homes.

During Tuesday night’s Committee of the Whole meeting, Bloomington Normal Economic Development Council President and CEO Patrick Hoban said as the population continues to grow, there is already a need for 4,500 houses in 2025.

“The terrifying part is if you project that out to 2030 and 2035, it’s saying you need 16,000 houses,” Hoban said.

According to Mid-Illinois Realtors Association President Tracy Patkunas, there are only 99 homes on the market right now in Bloomington-Normal.

“If we could even get back to our healthy market, usually when we’ve got available maybe six to 800, that would be huge,” Patkunas said. “We just keep growing and growing. There are probably thousands we could really use.”

She said there is not enough housing to serve the people who are coming into the area for work and school.

“Right now, we only have …