"They don't think there's anything they can do to help themselves. They're embarrassed. They think they have to dish out thousands of dollars for an attorney, and they can't do that, so they just walk away."

- Luz Ruiz-Echandy, a Harris Bank employee who tutors consumers on their finances, telling the Southtown Star how many Cook County residents who face foreclosure feel they have no options to fight it. However, the county, facing a growing number of foreclosure cases, is giving borrowers a chance to negotiate with their lender's attorney or representative to try to rework their loan terms. Homeowners don't need a lawyer in a foreclosure case. There is an appearance fee of $188, but defendants can seek a financial hardship waiver.

According to Action Now, a Chicago-based nonprofit group, of the 25,561 of last year's 27,653 foreclosure judgments in Cook County were by default, meaning the borrower never showed up in court.

"I have even begged them for a foreclosure,"

Delinquent mortgage holder Charlotte Jensen told the Washington Post in response to the fact that a year after she could not afford to pay her mortgage and has moved out of her house, Bank of America has yet to take back her former home.

With a glut of delinquent mortgages on the market these days, lenders are having a difficult time actually following through with a foreclosure. During the first quarter of this year, the share of all homeowners seriously delinquent on their mortgage but not yet facing foreclosure more than doubled to just over 3 percent, or about $227 billion in loans. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, there was a total of $97 billion in such loans during the same period in 2008.

"We’re encouraged to see the bank-owned inventory moving in the marketplace, indicating buyers are finding good bargains, especially in single-family homes and flats.

The city of Chicago condominium sales numbers continue to reflect a critical need for governmental agencies to review the growing disparity in the ability to finance a condominium purchase in the city. This affordable housing will become unaffordable and unattainable to many qualified first-time homebuyers in the city of Chicago unless existing federal guidelines, which do not take into account nuances of the local market, are modified."

- David Hanna, president of the Chicago Association of Realtors, in a news release quoted by Crain's in this morning's report on Chicago home sales. You can hear more from Hanna about those local "nuances" in this recent video interview with Joe Zekas.

Chicago-area home sales fell 18.7 percent in May 2009 compared with May 2008 but increased over the previous month for the fourth straight time, Crain's reports. The median price of a home in May was $200,000, down 20.3 percent from $251,000 in May 2008.

"We expect prices to drop for another year and then stabilize before starting to rise with incomes."

- Standard & Poor's chief economist David Wyss, talking to Business Week and MSNBC about the future of home prices. (Hat tip to The Real Deal.) According to the article, Moody's Economy.com predicts the S&P / Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index will fall 16 percent this year before regaining ground. The market may return to normal in 2012, just in time for the arrival of all those fractal timewaves, cosmic alignments and universe-ending calendar changes.

It’s like a big echo chamber. Anything here, you can hear it perfectly.

I don’t really look at other people’s class or their racial background. I expect everybody to live in the building like I live in the building.

- Ian Swope, owner of a one-bedroom condo at the Westhaven Park Tower on the Near West Side.

I don’t think it’s our responsibility to go and confront the people having the problems.

- Kathy Quickery, president of the Westhaven Park Tower condo association.

We just don’t click in with them. They look at you up and down like you crazy and all that.

I feel that that the homeowners are racist toward the CHA residents because some of them paying their rent and some CHA residents not paying no rent. And they’ll speak and I won’t speak back because I’m kind of racist toward the white people.

- David Harris, a renter living in one of Westhaven Park Tower's 34 homes designated for CHA public housing.

Some residents at Westhaven Park's nine-story tower are demanding the CHA continue to pay $15,000 to fund 24-hour security that will stop loitering and keep out unwanted guests, according to a story from Chicago Public Radio's City Room. The story suggests an "us-vs-them mentality is bubbling" at the development, due in part to the lack of a community sentiment between condo owners and CHA renters. " Condo owners say they are happy to simply come home and enjoy their units," the story says. "Those who spent years living in public housing say they are used to an environment where everyone knows everyone."

"An auction spells desperation in capital letters. It marks the property in a way that sends the wrong message."

- Michael Signet, director of sales at Bond New York, on the increase of property auctions across the United States as the housing market has tightened and people are having difficultly selling their homes even at decreased prices. Chicago has not been shielded from this phenomenon; just this week Rick Levin & Associates announced a "mega auction" of hundreds of condos, single-family homes, and townhomes in Chicago, Grayslake, Libertyville, Lombard, Mount Prospect, Schiller Park, Lincolnshire and Belmont Cragin. A handful of area condo developments - McKinley Park Lofts, Jazz on the Boulevard in North Kenwood and Vetro in the South Loop - have also gone the auction route.

"Banks are now demanding 20% and 25% down, AND that at least 70% of the condo development be sold before they will finance a condo buyer. But this brings us to that proverbial chicken and egg question - which comes first? How do you get 70% fill if banks won't finance your buyers until you're 70% full?"

- Reggie Middleton of the Boom Bust Blog, in a recent post surveying condo values and new construction in the New York market. (Hat tip to Curbed.)

"Everybody I’ve sold to this year has been looking at brand-new and decided they prefer to do nearly new. For a little less money, they know exactly what they’re getting, and they can move right in."

- Karin Posvar-Picket, senior vice president at the Corcoran Group, just one of several agents and buyers in New York who tell The New York Times that "nearly new is the new new" when it comes to condo sales. Nearly new condos are more likely to be in a building that's sold out, making it easier for buyers to secure mortgages. ("Many banks will not issue mortgages in buildings that are less than 70 percent sold," the article states.) Buyers don't have to worry about a developer renting out unsold units or disappearing before a building's completion, and they have the benefit of seeing and meeting an established group of neighbors.

“The most encouraging part of this news is that this is the second month with very strong inquiries for new projects. A growing number of architecture firms report potential projects arising from federal stimulus funds. … Still, too many architects are continuing to report difficult conditions to feel confident that the economic landscape for the construction industry will improve very quickly. What these figures mean is that we could be seeing things turn around over a period of several months.”

- American Institute of Architects Chief Economist Kermit Baker, commenting on the data released in the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). The report shows that architecture billings fell less than a full point in April, marking "the first time since August and September 2008 that the index was above 40 for consecutive months." Calculated Risk has some nice graphs that show the Architecture Billings Index since 1996.

"Housing market stability will appear sometime this summer. I can't tell you if it's June 29 or Aug. 1… But the U.S. will recover and recover first around the world because we have a culture and we have an environment where we face up to reality quickly and effectively as opposed to many other counties in the world which create zombie environments because they are not able to face up to reality."

- Sam Zell, doing his best "Carnac the Magnificent" at the International Council of Shopping Centers' annual convention on Monday.

I believe that in a country that continues to grow and where the population continues to grow, we will see the first signs of equilibrium in the housing market in the spring of 2009 and I will expect by spring 2010 the housing market in the U.S. will look a lot better.

- Sam Zell, on Dec. 14, 2008.

I think starts have already pretty much bottomed out…I think the housing market this spring will begin its recovery phase.

- Sam Zell, on Feb. 26, 2008.