foreclosure

The foreclosure crisis left many communities with a dilemma: Vacant homes are accumulating quickly at the same time as fewer and fewer people can qualify for mortgages to buy those homes. What can be done with the growing inventory of vacant, abandoned homes?[read more]

The New York Times recently published a haunting piece about the black middle class in America. It isn't discussed enough that the sub-prime crisis not only brought the economy to its knees but also destroyed the public-sector job market upon which so many black middle-class lives have been built for half a century. Black households have...[read more]

Seems like my chapter "The Death of Sprawl" from The Post Carbon Reader is taking on a life of its own. Friday, Christopher Leinberger had an Op-ed in the New York Times, titled "Death of the Fringe Suburb," which built upon concepts I had published (and sent Leinberger last year) namely, that the US mortgage crisis and Recession were set off by upsidedown economics of sprawl speculation in US exurbs or "Boomburbs" and we can't ever do that again.[read more]

Washington, DC has a new program that allows homeless families to create “sweat equity” by helping rehab vacant properties, where they may then live for up to two rent-controlled years.[read more]

According to various sources, the online social network Facebook is not all about fun and games anymore. Property owners in default on their mortgage could be served through Facebook. According to Time magazine, the "Facebook foreclosure" is coming soon to a financially discouraged neighborhood near you. Short term installment loans...[read more]