‘Seriously underwater’ loans plague parts of Chicago area

A home in south suburban Riverdale sold in May for less than half what its seller paid 19 years ago, but his real estate agent said the owner “was glad to get that monkey off his back.”

Rodney Russell bought the house for $81,500 in 1997 and sold it for $37,000, according to the Cook County recorder of deeds. He wasn’t in foreclosure, according to the recorder, but made a deal with his lender to short-sell the house because he’d been trying to sell it since 2009, said listing agent John Palomo of Coldwell Banker…Please click here to read Dennis Rodkin’s story in Crain’s.