Free Republic

U.S. housing crisis also hitting the wealthy Sun Dec 7, 2008 11:31am EST By Nick Carey HINSDALE, Illinois (Reuters) - Less than a year ago, few people in this affluent Chicago suburb expected the subprime U.S. housing crisis would hit close to home. "We thought Hinsdale was virtually immune and we wouldn't see any foreclosures, but we have," said Dave Hanna, managing partner of Chicago-based Prudential Preferred CRE and president of the Chicago Association of Realtors. "Nowhere is immune." With a pretty red-brick downtown lined with stores, good schools and a railway line to nearby Chicago, Hinsdale has been popular...

Roland Arnall certainly never has tried to hide his support for the Republican Party. He personally donated $5 million to help run a pro-Bush ad in 2004 and Ameriquest, a mortgage company Arnall founded, gave $250,000 to President Bush's inaugural in 2005. Arnall and his wife, Dawn, also helped raise more than $200,000 each to secure Bush's re-election. But another donation of Arnall's has received little attention. In 2004, Arnall donated $5 million to help fund the Republican National Convention in New York City. Arnall gave the donation in the name of RoDa Drilling LLC, a company he co-owned...