News Articles

By Dan Weissman In early July, Chicago police officers arrested four men for taking over 14 vacant foreclosed homes — living in some and renting out the rest — mostly in prosperous neighborhoods. Seven years after the housing market crashed, there are still enough vacant homes to provide opportunities for this kind of creativity.Eight of the houses were in Beverly Hills and Morgan Park— South Side Chicago neighborhoods that look like suburbs, complete with big brick houses, winding streets and a vigilant neighborhood group, the Beverly Area Planning Association. One of the homes sits a block and a half from the [...]

By Joe Sinopoli RIVERSIDE – Whatever Cook County decides to do to bring about flood relief to Riverside Lawn, officials say no one will be forced to sell their property. According to county officials, claiming eminent domain is not an option. Officials from the county and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) met Riverside Lawn residents July 30 in a public meeting to discuss how to bring relief to the flood-beleaguered residents in the unincorporated subdivision on the south bank of the Des Plaines River. Riverside Lawn lies huddled in a forested area between Lyons and Riverside on [...]

By Michael Romain When, earlier this month, the Cook County Land Bank Authority identified 13 Chicago neighborhoods and 13 surrounding suburbs in which to aggressively purchase vacant single-family and multifamily properties — Austin was on the list. The selected areas all have a concentrated supply of what the Woodstock Institute — a Chicago-based research and financial advocacy organization — calls "zombie properties." Those are properties in which a foreclosure case "has been filed but not resolved for more than three years." "Because neither the borrower nor the servicer has clear control of the property, neither has a strong incentive to [...]

By Mary Ellen Podmolik Humboldt Park is in. So are East Garfield Park and Woodlawn in Chicago and suburbs like Maywood, Matteson and South Holland. The Cook County Land Bank Authority has identified 13 city neighborhoods and 13 west and south suburbs where it will aggressively buy vacant, abandoned single-family homes and small multifamily buildings and hold them, waiting for a buyer. But other Chicago neighborhoods hard hit by the nation's housing crisis are out. North and South Lawndale, Englewood and West Ridge are not going to get focused attention and investment from the land bank because there is "too [...]

By Mary Ellen Podmolik "Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are embarking on an ambitious pilot program designed to remove thousands of vacant, foreclosed homes from their books and repair neighborhoods throughout Chicago and suburban Cook County. The two agencies, which own more foreclosed properties than anyone else, are expected to announce Wednesday they will offer qualified nonprofit groups and their developers an option to buy foreclosures, often at a discount, before the properties are publicly listed for sale. The program will initially include about 3,800 single-family homes, condominiums and two- to four-flats but that number will fluctuate as Fannie and [...]

With a unanimous vote of the Cook County Land Bank Board and strong support of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, the CCLBA Board named Mr. Robert Rose as Executive Director at yesterday’s monthly board meeting. Rob comes to the Cook County Land Bank from the Chicago Community Loan Fund where he served as Chief Operating Officer and has strong background in finance, underwriting and community development. “I am not only excited, but also passionate about the opportunity to have an impact in this City and County. The Cook County Land Bank has a real opportunity to transform how foreclosures [...]

By Mary Ellen Podmolik More than 700 properties that have languished unused, some for almost two decades, may be grabbed by the Cook County Land Bank Authority to make them more attractive to developers. The parcels — which are scattered around the county and include land zoned for residential, commercial and industrial use as well as vacant homes — are among 23,000 properties that have been offered for sale through the county’s scavenger tax sale, with no takers for at least two years. The land bank believes the parcels would be desirable, were it not for delinquent property taxes that [...]