A sobering graphic
from David Ruccio
Now, that’s a sobering graphic. The map shows one zip code on Chicago’s South West Side, 60629.
This neighborhood has been gutted. The red dots represent all of the properties in that zip code that are either in pre-foreclosure or are already bank owned.
Now, according to the Washington Post, Chicago has become a foreclosure-free zone.
It wasn’t the banks or judges that instituted the moratorium, because they were still moving cases forward at a rapid clip. The holdup was elsewhere: at the sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, whose office is responsible for physically evicting delinquent homeowners, announced Oct. 19 that his deputies would “no longer be doing the banks’ work for them anymore.”
I wonder what the bottoms-up, free-market types think of this solution to the current housing crisis. . .
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—– look inside —– $5.94 / $20.00
—– look inside —– $4.90 / $8.00
—– look inside —– $15.99
—– look inside —– $5.99 / 12.99
—– look inside —– $5.93 / $12.99
—– look inside —– $4.97 / $9.90
—— Ugarteche, Puyana and Madi ——
Gerson Lima / Maria Alejandra Madi
Edward Fullbrook and Jamie Morgan
————— Michael Hudson ————–
Maria Alejandra Madi / Jack Reardon
————- Edward Fullbrook ————-
—————— Steve Keen —————–
————— Richard Smith —————
————– Gustavo Marques————
– Victor Beker and Beniamino Moro –
————– Lars Pålsson Syll ————-
—————– Stuart Birks —————-
Edward Fullbrook and Jamie Morgan
———— Armando Ochangco ———-
Shimshon Bichler / Jonathan Nitzan
————— Mauro Gallegati ————–
————— Herman Daly —————-
————— Asad Zaman —————
—————– C. T. Kurien —————
————— Robert Locke —————-
Real-World Economics Review Blog 
All power to the Sheriff.
Long live the revolution!
What is the source for the map?
I’ve revised the post to supply the missing link for the map. Here’s the link itself: http://prof77.wordpress.com/the-20/foreclosures-maps/
WP: “Dart asked that attorneys for mortgage companies sign something personally confirming that evictions are justified. None did. So Dart has refused to honor their requests.”
I don’t see how private property fundamentalists could possibly have a problem with this. Sheriff Dart is just asking the would-be foreclosers to demonstrate to his satisfaction that they do, in fact, own the right to foreclose. He is protecting the property rights of the true owners, whoever they are.
Once upon a time, in 1580, there was a revolution. In Friesland, a little statelet somewhere along the North sea coast. The new protestant government seized the lands of the catholoic church – an action which only a few decades before would have been literally unthinkable, evicted rentier monks and started to use the rents to combat the Habsburgs. But guess what – the farmers farming the land did not care and kept on farming, as always. The cows kept grazing, the maids kept on churning the milk and the butter and cheese markets kept functioning. To the surprise of the fundamentalists, the sun did not fall from the sky.
Alas, today the situation is different. Again, there is a revolution. The banks seize masses of houses from the people living in and owning these houses – an action literally unthinkable just three years ago. So, the banks did not only take undue risks, create an administrative and legal mess and receive 700.000.000.000 of tax payers money to finance their mistakes but they also ended up owning the rest of the USA, de facto buying this property for an absolute rock bottom price. And were did all the people go?
How idiotic. If anything, this sheriff is doing the banks a favor. All that property repossessed at once is disastrous for the banks. This way they can blame some sheriff while they carefully cull the value from the rot.
That is a mess of bad loans! I would love to see a breakout on the lenders, the history of the loans, etc. How many of these loans are older than five years, ten?
I can only imagine that no matter what points and fees were paid up front to the lenders, this has proven to be a very bad series of investments.