William Towns is buying hundreds of foreclosed properties in some of the city’s hardest-hit neighborhoods, backed by an investor with the deepest pockets of all: the U.S. government.
As one of the Chicago heads of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), Mr. Towns has spent the past 15 months scouting for foreclosed residential properties in depressed areas like Austin and Chicago Lawn. With $153 million in federal grants, he expects to buy, rehab and resell more than 1,200 units through the program, which was set up in 2008 to prevent further …

Looking back, most investors now understand that over-investment in housing was in large part caused by the Central Bank.  The Greenspan Fed cut interest rates way too low, kept rates there way too long and – when it finally got around to lifting them – did it way too slowly.
When monetary policy is overly loose, bad things inevitably happen, usually related to mal-investment in a particular sector or across several sectors.  Eventually, investment in those areas is pushed too far and will not generate enough cash flow to cover growing …

The Sun Times tells us of “Daley ally Davis quits pension board”, with a few detals then takes us through 500 words or so to note that Allison Davis “also was once the future President Obama’s boss at the Chicago law firm Davis Miner Barnhill”.
For a little context, last July, our Pat Hickey expanded upon the connections between Allsion Davis, Tony Rezko, and Barack Obama concluding:
Allison Davis’ family is involved in the mis-management of these housing projects….part of a massive scheme involving the Chicago Progressive industry, Tony Rezko, and the …

The son of embattled Sen. Roland Burris is a federal tax deadbeat who landed a $75,000-a-year state job under former Gov. Rod Blagojevich five months ago, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
Blagojevich’s administration hired Roland W. Burris II as a senior counsel for the state’s housing authority Sept. 10 — about six weeks after the Internal Revenue Service slapped a $34,163 tax lien on Burris II and three weeks after a mortgage company filed a foreclosure suit on his South Side house.
More at the Sun-Times

What’s needed is getting prospective buyers back into the market. A direct subsidy could do that. Those who remember the seemingly forgotten Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 might be saying, “We tried that and it didn’t work.” The act did sound good–it provided a First-time Homebuyer Tax Credit of up to $7,500. But, according to surveys conducted by NAR, the credit isn’t working as well as hoped because homebuyers have to pay the tax credit back within 15 years. When first-time homebuyers hear about the repayment requirement, they …