Far South Side homeowners question Red Line extension’s impact on property values

Monique Banks-McGee had been trying to sell her family home for months before she received a letter stating that the property could be acquired for the extension of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Red Line. The frame house she currently rents out in the Roseland neighborhood is along a proposed path of the massive transit project.

“We have not done an appraisal on the home, but the asking price is $35,000. If you look at the market in that area that’s what they are worth and less,” said Banks-McGee, whose parents bought the house 50 years ago.

The original purchase price has long faded from memory.

“It is a blow to our family because we didn’t expect the market to shift. The house that we grew up in, lived in … is worth nothing,” she said…Please click here to read La Risa Lynch’s story in the Chicago Reporter.