The Right Place

I'm feeling a bit crabby tonight about the use of language in the real estate/housing world.

Does the term "work force housing" bother anybody else out there? It's the term well-meaning policy people have developed to talk about "housing that is affordable" i.e. housing for people who work that is NOT "affordable housing," i.e. housing for people who are poor. Funny thing is that the COST of HOUSING (renting or buying) these days is likely to make people who WORK become POOR.

In a way, the term "workforce housing" says "Here's housing for people who work," and then there's everyone else, and everyone else is in the majority? You tell me. Am I crazy?

It reminds me a little bit of how some mortgage brokers will seek to soothe worries about people having trouble with their subprime mortgages by pointing out these individuals had confounding life events like job loss or illness. Oh well, no worry. That makes us FEEL so MUCH better! We are not THOSE type of people - you know, the ones who would lose their jobs or become ill!

Continue reading "Care to parse?" »

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You can learn more about Maxed Out here.. It's opening in Chicago March 16.

Here’s an outtake interview from my chat with Director James Scurlock that was printed in The Right Place today.

Continue reading "More Maxed out" »

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There's a film and panel discussion next week at Columbia College on how the credit card industry works. If you'd like to get a place of your own and have had trouble with your credit, this film might help you better understand what's going on. NPR's Steve Edwards is hosting and Barbara Ehrenreich will be attending. Here's additional informaton.

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Seems to me that the old term "affordable housing" really doesn't speak to what's on the mind of many Chicagoans these days. When I think of "affordable housing", I think of folks trying to get a step up on the economic ladder, which is a good thing. But I am wondering more about "housing affordability," homes for people like you and me, people who, by many standards, have made it, people who are making $45,000 to $80,000 per year, who work hard, but given the price and conditions for buying these days don't want to over-leverage themselves.

Perhaps we need a new way to think about the personal finances of home ownership. I'd like to hear what you think about this.

Continue reading "Housing affordability vs. affordable housing" »

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This week we wrote about something called condo fraud in The Right Place. It's a suspected way that some crooked "developers" make a lot of cash while creating slums.

It occurred to us to us that some of you might not know what a legitimate real estate developer's expenses look like so we've done a little run down here, It was news to us too.

Most developers expect a profit margin of about 20% on their investment, which is pretty modest compared with what our suspected "crooked" developers hope to make.

Continue reading "Fight back against condo fraud" »

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New analysis from the civic watchdog group is in favor of extending the property tax exemption through tax years 2006-2008 at its current maximum level of $20,000. The Federation cautions, however, that it's no substitute for comprehensive property tax reform as David Roeder reports in today's Sun-Times business section,

Continue reading "Civic Federation weighs in on 7% solution" »

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We're seeing lots of movement these days on housing affordability.

Community groups are coming together to back an ordinance that would require developers of new construction or rehabbers of buildings of 10 or more units to set aside 15% of the units at affordable prices. The other option would be to require developers to make a payment to the Chicago Low Income Housing Trust Fund. The Low Income Housing Trust Fund was instrumental in funding many of the properties featured in the City of Chicago's recent Cavalcade of Homes.

Continue reading "Balanced Development Ordinance" »

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We ran a story recently about a study by the National Housing Council on housing and transportation costs.

It found that many Chicagoans spend an average of 55% of their income on housing and transportation combined.

Continue reading "Housing and transportation costs" »

Posted by Sally Duros at 10:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We previewed the City of Chicago's Cavalcade of Homes extensively on Oct. 6.

Continue reading "Cavalcade of Homes" »

Posted by Sally Duros at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)