Tuesdays at APA: Community Reinvestment and the Foreclosure Crisis

Community Reinvestment and the Foreclosure Crisis
February 22, 2011


According to the Woodstock Institute, lenders repossessed more
than 25,000 homes in the Chicago area during the first three
quarters of 2010. According to the same analysis, these
lender-owned foreclosures will take an average of 16 months to be
absorbed by the housing market. Vacant properties cause blight,
which destabilizes neighborhoods and local real estate markets,
and also weakens the ability of municipalities to maintain a
comfortable quality of life by shrinking tax rolls and increasing
maintenance costs.


Geoff Smith from the Woodstock Institute took an in-depth look at
recent trends in foreclosure activity in the Chicago region with
a focus on the shifting patterns of regional foreclosures, the
concentration of vacant properties tied to foreclosures, and
implications for community development.