The SAFE Act defines a residential mortgage loan as "any loan primarily for personal, family or household use that is secured by a mortgage, deed of trust, or other equivalent consensual security interest on a dwelling (as defined in section 103(v) of the Truth in Lending Act ("TILA")) or residential real estate upon which is constructed or intended to be constructed a dwelling (as so defined)".

Now, I might not be able to help with affordable housing for EVERYBODY, however, for those household who DO have a disability of one type or another (and the list is fairly long), then this WOULD apply, in which case you can give both the city code enforcement officer and your NIMBY neighbor the finger. 

Assuming that you are attempting to cut out spending, there are likely to be only three categories in which you can make a material (decades faster in achieving your goal) difference.Note, this does not take into account what you can do on the income front.These three categories are:* Your Housing Costs* Your Transportation Costs* Your food costs See this graph of average american household spending from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:Where are lattes in that graph?

We used to always have this debate in our household about how to allocate the money that was sitting in 1 single pot at the bank.  

Although my lease states no painting and my Chargeable Maintenance addendum specifies that repainting the apartment after move-out is taken from their security deposit, I have had several households perform real "customized" paint jobs.

People who make money by selling RE or investing services in Chicago of course have to promote the area.Perhaps the total population has decreased but the average household income and high paying jobs have increased over the past five years.

I bet if you stopped going to work for the next month or two you'd see a *boatload* of changed behavior in your household. 

I'll be sure to check the average household age, and see how the market reacts to the ages.Thank you.

Here's another chart of prices in relation to household income.  

Early next year, the Federal Reserve will also implement the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility to facilitate the extension of credit to households and small businesses.