For years before the housing bubble burst, the argument was that you could never lose by investing in -- or betting on -- real estate. That was the "logic" used not only by a segment of shady mortgage lenders but by the mainstream industry, and by every president in modern...
5 Comments | Posted March 8, 2012 | 11:05 AM
While many housing and community activists have long intuited that well-financed "vacant property speculators" were wreaking havoc in their communities -- driving down prices, prolonging vacancies and spreading blight -- a new study by the Cleveland Fed both substantiates their suspicions and opens up the discussion about thoughtful...
2 Comments | Posted February 16, 2012 | 11:32 AM
The $26 billion settlement between state attorneys general, the federal government and five of the nation's largest banks offers a cautionary tale and some real opportunities for communities grappling with the foreclosure crisis.
While the most apparent beneficiaries are the homeowners who will receive modest compensation (on average $2000)...
0 Comments | Posted January 2, 2012 | 12:23 PM
While forging their own solutions, neighborhoods, towns, cities and states alike are looking to the Federal Government for support in fighting the scourge of abandoned and foreclosed properties that are undermining blocks, neighborhoods and government coffers. Yet in the past month, rather than shed light, messages from Washington have been...

0 Comments | Posted March 26, 2012 | 1:07 PM