Wave of foreclosure sweeps Chicago’s US emblem

Johnson offered a different view. He suggested there was simply no adequate housing, especially affordable housing, in many parts of the country. Lifting the moratorium only exacerbated the problem.

“We’re running out of inventory,” Johnson said. “Here’s the total number. [housing] unit. ”

Pew Research Center figures back this up. In October 2016, the monthly average number of active home listings in the United States was 1.5 million, but by January 2022, there will be only about 409,000. Over the same period, the average price of a home in the United States rose from just over $300,000 to over $400,000. Since 2017, the national average rent has risen by 18%, with even higher increases in metropolitan areas. Rent market research site Apartment List estimates that the average apartment price in Chicago alone is 11% higher in April 2022 than in April 2021.

“We don’t have enough roofs to live on,” Johnson said.

This claim is sometimes challenged by analysts on the left, who point out that as of 2020, there were about 16 million vacant homes in the United States, compared to a homeless population of about 550,000. But Johnson called it a herring. He said that even if someone on the East Coast had their house foreclosed, it wouldn’t matter too much to them to have surplus housing in a town on the West Coast.

In addition, only about 35% of the national housing stock is affordable for people with incomes below 50% of the median income in the region, and less than 1% is state-subsidized public housing. In some metropolitan areas, such as Los Angeles and Chicago, public affordability increased, such as when the Chicago Housing Authority began demolishing the infamous Cabrini Green public housing project in 2000 under the direction of his then-mayor. It even has a history of destroying housing stock. Richard M. Daily. All of this means that even if many homes are technically available, they likely won’t be held at a price that modern foreclosures can afford.

The cold comfort offered by both experts is that the current foreclosure crisis is not as severe as the country experienced during the 2008 Great Recession. Reilly called the 2008 crisis a “grab” of the market and said it was “nowhere near”.

Mr Johnson said the current crisis stems from a housing shortage, but the 2008 crisis stemmed from an oversupply of single-family homes that burst a speculative bubble.

“There may be places that will be hit hard based on demographic change, but it’s a matter of undersupply and oversupply,” he said.

Neither expert had concrete ideas on how to solve the current crisis. Riley urged everyone facing foreclosure to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy if possible, but Johnson said this was a problem that could be completely solved through market manipulation. suggested not.

A 2020 collection of analyzes from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs vehemently agreed. We have come to the conclusion that the only solution to the foreclosures and housing crisis is the decommodification of housing. Instead, it proposed a strategy that prioritizes state-owned and community-owned housing that is not subject to profit speculation.

“Having a roof over our heads is essential for human development, but this is threatened when housing is the way to make money in communities where market value is rising and corporate investors are paying attention.” argued one of the collection’s analyzes.

Back in Chicago, the city government on Friday announced a more capitalist-friendly initiative to combat a surge in foreclosures that leads the nation. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, along with Alderman Carlos Ramirez and her Rosa, a left-wing lawmaker who frequently criticizes her, formally opened the Emmett Street apartments in Logan Her Square her community, where the city’s mixed-income population gathers. Did. All of her 100 apartment units in the building will be affordable to those under her 60% of median income in the city limits, half of which will be reserved as public housing units.

“After years of community organizing and struggle, we are finally able to cut the ribbon on a beautiful building housing 100 working families in the heart of Logan Square,” Ramirez Rosa said in a statement. I’m excited about

But while some believe the housing crisis needs to be addressed, the whole situation has its pitfalls. Even though the current foreclosure rate is the highest since the pandemic began, it remains below the average pre-pandemic foreclosure rate, with the number of foreclosures initiated in the first quarter of 2022 surpassing the first quarter of 2020. Only about half as much as if started. ATTOM researchers predict that there will eventually be a return to “historically normal” foreclosure levels, possibly as early as the end of the year.

“While strong month-over-month and year-over-year growth is likely to continue through the second quarter of 2022, foreclosures will not reach historically normal levels until at least the end of the year. Unless it gets worse,” the report said.

In other news, Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf told The Washington Post earlier this week that there was “no doubt” that the U.S. economy was headed for a plunge.