"Ya we in luck here / Down in the muck here"

I've discovered an awesome new interactive tool for depressing myself: Where are home loans underwater? at Zillow Visuals. Rate for my zipcode of residence: 68%. You have to trek all the way to the South Side to find a number that beats it. (72% in 60653, which embraces Bronzeville.) Just across Devon (technically just across Schreiber, which is even closer) the percentage is a balmy 46%, which raises the possibility that on a block-by-block basis, we may be slightly closer to the Cook County average of 44%.

We have still yet to see a sale in our building since monshu and I bought here nearly four years ago. Around this time last year, we had perhaps our most contentious condo association meeting ever in which we agreed unanimously to begin enforcing the rental cap. My hope was that that would finally give some owners the push they needed to sell up, take the loss, and move on. So far it isn't working that way: The longtime scofflaw seems to have found a dodge to keep renting out his place by designating his tenants his "invitees and agents" and the only one caught up in the net so far is someone who was trying to save money while going back to school by moving in with his boyfriend while he rented his one-bedroom.

What does this all mean in terms of getting FHA approval so the other homo couple can sell up? Who the hell knows. I can't get the other board members to return my e-mails and even the one who is a lawyer by day was vague on the legality of what the Von Stomp's landlord is doing. (Did I mention that he lost the lawyer we had on retainer because he refused to take action when she notified us that she was going to destroy our files if we didn't contract to keep paying her? I'm sure that will look wise in retrospect.)

ETA: The WSJ has a a word or two on the accuracy of Zillow's estimates.