Housing
Can the Feds Save the Housing Market?
An ambitious new program would transform foreclosed homes into rentals. But will it help the cities that need it most?
Zeke Morris spends his days roaming the south side of Chicago managing foreclosures. As an agent working with real-estate owned (REO) properties, his job is to match these vacant houses with buyers. In some of his neighborhoods, investors are swooping in to nab the properties, renovating them to quickly turn them around or holding them tight in the hope of a market improvement.
But in other neighborhoods, like Englewood and Bronzeville - areas brimming with foreclosed homes - they just aren't. “It's tough to get an investor to go there,” Morris says.