Self-styled Pied Piper and noted water sports enthusiast R. Kelly hasn't paid the mortgage on his Olympia Fields mansion for over a year. more ›

Mayor Daley and Bank of America did something good before he left office? Sacré bleu! more ›

Gery Chico and Miguel del Valle took the opportunity of Bill Clinton's visit to Chicago to slam Rahm Emanuel for his “cozy relationship” with Clinton, his ties to mortgage giant Freddie Mac and the national housing crisis. Clinton was in Chicago for a private fundraiser for Emanuel. “When Rahm Emanuel had the chance to blow the whistle on corrupt activity taking place on the Freddie Mac board, he sat on his hands, looked the other way and took the cash,” Chico told CBS2. “It was a character test and Rahm Emanuel failed.” Citing a Tribune report that Emanuel was paid almost half a million dollars as a board member at Freddie Mac and was informed by board executives of a plan to mislead shareholders about profits, Chico compared Emanuel's experience to Enron, calling it “an illegal scheme to misstate profits” from risky investments “almost exactly like Enron did.” “We can’t afford a mayor who would look the other way when presented with this kind of corruption," Chico said. more ›

It looks like not only homeowners that are walking away from their homes when they get underwater on their mortgages. A new study released by the Woodstock Institute found that more mortgage lenders are walking away from homes as they realize they can't recoup the full costs of their investments. Some mortgage lenders are going so far as to not complete paperwork on foreclosure actions and filing them with the city. These abandoned homes, mainly in African American neighborhoods, could be costing the city up to $36 million. more ›

The mortgage securities crisis that nearly brought down the economy didn't just hurt homeowners. Allstate filed a lawsuit against Bank of America and 17 other defendants over understating the risks on more than $700 million in toxic mortgages it bought from Countrywide Financial. Bank of America bought Countrywide in 2008. more ›

Almost a third of Chicago homeowners are “underwater,” according to a report real estate company Zillow.com. Progress Illinois reports that Zillow released data suggesting that one in three single family homes in Chicago are worth less than the price of their current mortgage. The current median value on a single family home in the Chicago area is $189,000, slightly above the national average of $181,000. more ›

In 1959 the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared Chicago the most segregated city in the country. 51 years later, not much has changed with Chicago still the leader. The most fascinating aspect is how precise the dividing line is between racial boundaries. more ›

For the second time in two years, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart announced that his department will not act upon foreclosure evictions related to Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and GMAC/Ally Financial until those three financial institutions can provide affidavits stating that each of the foreclosures were examined and that there are no problems with them. more ›

We already talked about the bad news of area foreclosures increasing. But when will housing prices turn around? Moody's Economy has put together a forecast on when prices in the U.S. housing market will recover. According to a report published on The Real Deal, a website with a focus on the New York and Florida real estate markets, the Chicagoland Metropolitan Area should see prices recover sometime between 2014 and 2019 - not the most reassuring report for home owners that are feeling pinched right now, but substantially better for those of us that live in the Midwest. Florida and the Southwest can expect to see prices begin to recover sometime around 2030. The overall national recovery should start to happen sometime around 2020. more ›

Governor Pat Quinn was in Chicago's West Lawn neighborhood this weekend to sign into law a bill that extends a 90 day grace period to homeowners facing foreclosure. The bill, which passed the state legislature in late January, prohibits lenders from beginning foreclosure proceedings during the first 30 days of delinquency. After that, lenders are required to tell homeowners that they have 30 days after that period to seek credit counseling. Homeowners who get counseling from a HUD-approved credit counselor then have an additional 30 days to work out a plan to begin making payments on their home loan again. more ›

It isn't just local developers and regular homeowners that are having a hard time in the current housing market. Crain's Chicago Business is reporting that even the Chicago Housing Authority is feeling the pinch. more ›