Housing Foreclosures

The Washington Post takes stock of the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in its final days, finding a program hampered by bad faith from large banks and bad oversight by the Treasury Department.

December 31, 2016 - The Washington Post

There have been a number of federal and state programs to address the housing and foreclosure crisis. While these programs have helped a lot of people and continue to do so, many people that are qualified still have trouble completing these programs.

March 7, 2016 - DSNews

Foreclosures, the defining signifier of the Great Recession for many Americans, are coming to a screeching halt in Colorado. In fact, the state’s foreclosure rate improved at about twice the national average between 2012 and 2013.

January 19, 2014 - Denver Post

Real estate speculators are being fined big bucks in Cleveland for letting properties sit vacant, but the jury's still out on whether this is the key to stabilizing neighborhoods.

January 22, 2012 - Shelterforce

Starting in 2002, the Colorado legislature began to make it easier to foreclose on properties in Colorado. Original loan documents are no longer required to prove the bank actually owns the property.

October 1, 2011 - The Denver Post

As bank-owned homes become a source of blight and crime, cities struggle to effectively hold banks accountable for their maintenance. Large banks tend to be the worst offenders, often failing to remove trash and weeds or paying fines.

September 10, 2011 - Contra Costa Times

I recently finished reading Foreclosing the Dream, by William Lucy. The most interesting parts of this book are the first chapter and the last appendix, both of which tell us where foreclosures are (or at least were in 2008, before the foreclosure crisis morphed into an international economic downturn). These figures seem to me to debunk at least a couple of the more popular explanations of the foreclosure crisis, such as: Myth 1: "Its all the fault of too much lending to the urban poor."

March 21, 2011 - Michael Lewyn

Just as failing industries marked the decline of the Midwest after WWII (hence the name 'Rust Belt'), the new declining cities will be denoted by their percentage of foreclosures, found particularly in California, the Southwest, and Florida.

January 10, 2011 - International Business Times

To be sure, Celebration still has amongst the highest real estate values, about twice Florida's median value. Yet the foreclosure rate of one of every 20 residents is twice that of the state's.

December 17, 2010 - Bloomberg News via San Francisco Chronicle

This New York Times editorial argues that the present strategy to fix the housing mess isn't working; real relief in the form of principal reduction is needed.

January 5, 2010 - New York Times

As part of an art exhibition about housing, artist Damon Rich used the Panorama of the City of New York- a 9,000 sq. ft. model- to illustrate the foreclosure crisis.

July 8, 2009 - The New York Times

I would like to expand an ongoing debate between Reason Foundation policy expert Samuel Staley and me concerning land use policy impacts on affordability and economic stability to include two additional issues: household economic resilience and wealth accumulation.  

April 4, 2009 - Todd Litman

 As the economy continues to lumber through the most protracted period of recession since the early 1980s, the financial sector has received the brunt of the blame. It’s been easy for the planning profession to distance themselves from what seem at first to be macroeconomic trends. That view, however, is becoming increasingly difficult to uphold.

March 7, 2009 - Samuel Staley

Editorial: Long Island is one of the nation's most affluent suburbs. With very high housing values and located by NYC, it would be not expected to be hit hard by the subprime crisis. But it has - and its roots lie in its racially segregated past.

November 6, 2008 - The New York Times