'Stuck' Neighborhoods: The Transformation of Neighborhood Housing Markets & the Challenges of Neighborhood Market Recovery

This study focuses on the serious challenges faced by policymakers and practitioners seeking to spur recovery in neighborhoods severely impacted by the foreclosure crisis. Using detailed parcel-level analysis of a single Chicago neighborhood, it details the complex sources of housing instability produced by concentrated subprime lending. The paper then assesses a range of current policy initiatives in light of this analysis, arguing they only partially solve those problems. In contrast, it highlights lessons from an earlier generation of market recovery strategies – emphasizing neighborhood marketing and demand-building – arguing they offer critical lessons for neighborhood market recovery at the current juncture.

A journal article on this study will be forthcoming in late 2010.

The authors invite you to share your comments and questions.

PHILIP ASHTON
Principal Investigator
Assistant Professor, Urban Planning & Policy, College of Urban Planning & Public Affairs, University of Illinois‐Chicago
pashton@uic.edu

SUSANNE SCHNELL
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, Urban Planning & Design, City Design Center, University of Illinois‐Chicago
Executive Director, Archeworks
schnell.susanne@gmail.com