Foreclosures aren't fading

Home foreclosures, which have pummeled many Chicago area neighborhoods, are expected to continue to mount in 2010, and high unemployment will be the driver, experts say.

The problem, which has driven home prices down to bargain basement levels in some hard-hit African-American communities on the South and West sides of the city, will likely attract speculators. And that could be more bad news for those neighborhoods, predicts one local researcher.

While the start of the crisis was linked to the subprime mortgage meltdown, today and going forward "it's really tied to both unemployment still being high and properties being underwater, people owing more than the properties' worth," he said.

What's needed for a turnaround? "A combination of increasing property values and decreasing unemployment" are key, Smith said. "The unemployment probably has to come first. Until that happens you're going to see foreclosures remain very very high."

Another piece of propaganda. "The problem, which has driven home prices down to bargain basement levels in some hard-hit African-American communities on the South and West sides of the city, will likely attract speculators."

The prices are approximately where they stood in 2002-2003. Did they call THOSE prices "bargain-basement" then? Of course not.

The African-American communities are hit, of course, more than the rest of the country. Any evidence?

Note the lack of ANY relevant statistics in support the statements.

"I think there's probably going to be a lot of speculation going on in some of these lower income neighborhoods."

Whom else do you expect to buy a problematic property in difficult times?

Oh, how we hate "speculators," even on this conservative forum. All evil supposedly comes from them: they drove up oil prices up (but somehow not down), housing prices up (but not down), insurance premiums -- the same. Prices go up because of evil speculators but down "'cause we deserve it."

"There are concerns that may lead to properties where it's more difficult to track the owner down."

How is this different from the rest of America, which does not have a problem of "tracking down" real estate owners?

"The worry is that those investors won't be concerned about the neighborhoods or maintaining the properties,"

The greatest nonsense of all: how can a real estate investor NOT be concerned about the neighborhoods and maintenance? Owners care in general but in real estate, where location and soundness of the property are everything, this is paramount. And this idiot is presented to us as "researcher?"

Perhaps the real concern is that the new owners might be white?

"they're just kind of getting them on their books and if property values go up in a couple of years on a few of those properties then they'll make some money back."

If it's that simple, why don't you do that?

In addition, what happens in the meantime, before the prices go up? Don't the owners pay real estate taxes, pay for mowing loans, repairing the leaking roofs?

The only thing we learn from this article is that anyone willing to be an American --- take risks, work hard and hope for rewards --- is unwelcome on the South Side. We also learn how much the capitalist economy and markets --- represented here by nameless "speculators," --- are hated there as well as by Sun Times.

What did you find informative in this article, my friend?

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