Over the holidays, we wrote about the starter units available at Columbia Gardens at 1615 W. Columbia Ave in Rogers Park - and last weekend we visited its neighbor, a courtyard rehab (dubbed Columbia Parc) from the same builder.

Firebird Development Corp has acquired and rehabbed all the courtyard buildings along this short stretch of Columbia Avenue between Clark Street and Ashland Avenue, and the result is something of a micro-community in Rogers Park.

We toured the model at Columbia Parc, which sits just across the street at 1618 - 1624 W. Columbia. A listing agent from Baird & Warner confirmed that the 28-unit courtyard building has just five units left.

They're all two-bedroom condos; one garden unit starts at $169,900 (a recent price drop) and the other four homes start in the $210s.

At both Columbia Parc and Columbia Gardens, Firebird has been pushing the city's mortgage program to attract first-time buyers. Baird & Warner's Trevor Engelhardt (who dropped by on very short notice to tour Columbia Gardens with us last weekend) says he's noticed buyers coming from Edgewater and Lake View in search of slightly more competitive prices.

This must be the week of bad news.

Kimball Hill Homes, the developer of both Parkside of Old Town and Park Boulevard, has delayed filing its 2007 fiscal report and expects to absorb a heavy financial hit from the weakening market, according to an article in Crain's.

Kimball Hill, the largest homebuilder based in the Chicago area, lost $75.1 million in the first nine months of the year, including $133.7 million in impairment charges. Like other big homebuilders, the company has suffered amid declining home sales in key markets such as California and Las Vegas.

Moody’s Investors Service recently cut its ratings on Kimball Hill’s debt, including $203 million in senior subordinated notes. The notes closed Wednesday at 31 cents on the dollar, up two cents from their closing price Friday. They hit a low of 24 cents in early December.

Kimball's in-city projects are deep into construction, and they both involve CHA elements. When Yo checked out Parkside of Old Town in May 2007, the development was about 75 percent sold. A month before that, we reported that the first phase of Park Boulevard was 50 percent sold.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported, according to the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR), that borrower fraud was a big factor in the mortgage crisis.

The WSJ's thesis, says the CJR, is "unsupported and untrue."

Rokas International Inc., developer of the under-construction Motor Row Condominiums, 2300 S. Michigan Ave., is the target of a suit filed by a financing consultant over unpaid bills, according to an article in Crain's.

Sedgwick Properties Development Corp., a condo developer that also does consulting work, filed a lawsuit last week in Cook County Circuit Court alleging breach of contract against [Andrius] Augunas, his company Rokas International Inc., and the firm that provided Motor Row’s construction loan, Pasadena, Calif.-based IndyMac Bank.

The lawsuit is certainly unwelcome news, but the article goes on to describe a troubling discrepancy in the number of units sold.

In April, the project had 42 units under contract, according to a report by Appraisal Research Counselors. That is eight more than IndyMac required to issue the construction loan.

But in October, the number of sales had dropped to just 20, according to Appraisal Research figures, which developers and brokers provide voluntarily.

We've written extensively about the full-throttle development going on in Motor Row, but it remains to be seen how the ongoing developments there will weather the softening market.

Think of a typical courtyard development in Rogers Park. Where are the one-bedroom units? Usually, they’re squeezed into the rear of the development, says Trevor Engelhardt, a broker with Baird & Warner, leaving the more spectacular views for the larger residences.

Not so with Columbia Gardens, a 36-unit courtyard rehab at 1615 W. Columbia Ave. in Rogers Park. Firebird Development Corp. made a conscious decision to place the 750-square-foot one-bedroom units on the front of the project overlooking the street.

“It sounds like a small thing, but it’s not,” says Engelhardt, who is marketing the available units.

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"I sure am glad I'm not in the mortgage business. If I don't lend to lower-income people, I'm redlining; if I do, I'm being predatory…"

- Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape

Everything looks rosy for Walton on the Park, which received a $135 million construction loan to finance the first tower's groundbreaking, but we can't say the same for the Plymouth Building at 417 S. Dearborn.

Crain's is reporting that Broadway Bank is attempting to foreclose on the 11-story condo conversion project. Developers owe $2.9 million on the existing construction loan, but they're confident they can restructure the loan and proceed with the redevelopment. About 15 of the planned 30 one-bedroom condos have been sold.

Though he was “a little surprised” by the foreclosure suit, [Developer Charles Everhardt] is confident Broadway will agree to restructure the loan.

“Everything will be back on track in another 30 days,” he says.

It's "tougher but not impossible" to get mortgage financing says Steve Molitor of PHH Home Loans in this video.

I met Steve last Sunday at a well-attended open house for a newly-built $1,427,000 home in Lincolnshire hosted by Coldwell Banker's Linda Martin.

The Bush administration and the mortgage industry have agreed on a plan to freeze interest rates for up to five years for some of the two million homeowners carrying subprime loans. The New York Times reports.

"A strategic change in the bankruptcy code will provide homeowners facing foreclosure a degree of financial stability - even when the market cannot."

- Sen. Dick Durbin, on his proposed bill that would allow judges to adjust mortgages for homeowners facing foreclosure.