Does the city demolish industrial sites? Why do they pick on residential properties so much, yet ignore some industrial sites that been abandoned for DECADES. 

 

Because it may have something to do with EPA required clean-up before anyone can occupy the properties. The properties are often contaminated by industries who left without being held accountable. Unfortunately, we are left to pay the price to clean up their mess.

^^I believe the demos are complaint-driven; and I'd guess that a vast majority of complaints are about abandoned residential or small commercial buildings in residential neighborhoods that are visible eyesores and detract from a block's marketability.  Also, larger industrial sites may be more likely to have owners who are staying current with property taxes and otherwise contesting city actions.

 

EDIT: plus there's the fiscal reality; industrial sites are tremendously expensive to demo responsibly because of size, building materials and contamination.

Any number of factors could be causing this, such as a downturn in foreclosure sales or people holding property off the market or a summer uptick in sales (that might also disproportionately occur in northern cities, where weather differences between spring and summer are more pronounced and therefore more likely to cause prospective buyers to wait until it's warm). And it also represents only a snapshot of the change between two particular months; still, incredibly positive news. Go Cleve!

 

U.S. Economy: Home Prices Rise, Consumer Confidence Declines By Courtney Schlisserman and Shobhana Chandra

 

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- A gauge of U.S. house prices posted its first monthly gain in three years, providing some solace to consumers shaken by rising joblessness.

 

The S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index rose 0.5 percent in May from the prior month, the first gain since July 2006 and biggest since May of that year, the group said today in New York. A Conference Board report showed consumer confidence this month fell more than forecast ...

 

... For more information, please visit http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_VZ2C7gweKY

The jury is still out for me.  Some who lives near my brother sold their house for 1.2 million down 300k from initial asking.

 

I'm scared, these numbers year over year, don't make me feel any better about existing home value.

 

I'm worried about those, like my parents, where a significant amount of their wealth is tied directly to their home.

 

Sorry to be Debbie Downer.

Yes, MIL lives in a detached condo, and was neighbors to a number of Browns players.  Values were high, and she decided to use her cash to pay it off completely so she wouldn't have the "burden" of writing the monthly check!

 

All of a sudden, players were traded or FA, and that was no longer the place to live, so values dropped!  Now, after the GM debacle, her entire wealth is tied up in this home!

Yes, MIL lives in a detached condo, and was neighbors to a number of Browns players.  Values were high, and she decided to use her cash to pay it off completely so she wouldn't have the "burden" of writing the monthly check!

 

All of a sudden, players were traded or FA, and that was no longer the place to live, so values dropped!  Now, after the GM debacle, her entire wealth is tied up in this home!

 

Same with my parents, the house is paid for.  However, the maintence and taxes are a -----.  If only I could convince my brother to divorce the skank-in-law, sell his house and he and the kids move back into my parents house.

Concerning today's Case-Shiller house price data.... here is the line people are overlooking

 

"The price figures aren’t adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over-year changes. Adjusted for seasonal changes, the index fell 0.2 percent in May"

 

So while the Index's decline in home prices has slowed significantly, let's not overlook that they are STILL NEGATIVE ON A MONTHLY BASIS when factoring in seasonal changes.

 

sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

Concerning today's Case-Shiller house price data.... here is the line people are overlooking

 

"The price figures aren%u2019t adjusted for seasonal effects, so economists prefer to focus on year-over-year changes. Adjusted for seasonal changes, the index fell 0.2 percent in May"

 

So while the Index's decline in home prices has slowed significantly, let's not overlook that they are STILL NEGATIVE ON A MONTHLY BASIS when factoring in seasonal changes.

 

sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

 

You're not a downer, it's the truth.

 

I and most who live in "mature" neighborhoods, aren't hit as hard as those who live in tract home hell! 

 

I imagine that the cost/value of those homes has plummetted and a bunch of people have mortgages higher than the cost of the home they live in and the home next to it!

Cleveland seems to be getting the focus of the economy "bottoming out," especially with the housing market.

 

This was the main picture in the New York Times article today, regarding the housing market.

 

 

David Maxwell for The New York Times

A new residential development in Cleveland, Ohio. The long slide in housing prices is continuing to brake, figures released Tuesday indicate.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/economy/29housing.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

 

Cleveland seems to be always in the examples of cities who are recovering from the economy. It's neat to be given this positive perception/reality as of late.

Perception is the key word, considering sales are still down, over last year.

 

http://realestate.aol.com/home-values/case-shiller-index?pg=2

 

OOOhhh....gotta go beautiful people is on!

 

Is that Valley View?  That whole thing looks photoshopped together.

Too bad the houses could not have gotten a view of downtown out the front windows on those homes.

They changed the picture to one an incredibly ugly development in LV.

Is that Valley View? That whole thing looks photoshopped together.

 

That's Tremont Pointe (fka Valley View) - and it's not Photoshopped, just a different angle. Interesting that they'd use a Hope VI development for their main photo.

They changed the picture to one an incredibly ugly development in LV.

 

Those B@stards!  They did change the photo...

Perception is the key word, considering sales are still down, over last year.

 

Year-on-year median sales prices are down, but relatively speaking, we were in excellent shape here. Every single one of the markets among the 20-city composite are down year-on-year. Cleveland, where the decline in median price was 6.2%, had the 3rd least severe slide in prices (Denver, decline of 4.6%, and Dallas, -4.1%, are the only cities that had less of a slide). The average city experienced a 17.1% drop in media sales price ... nearly 3 times as severe as our own. Be thankful you're not in Las Vegas (-32.0%!) or Phoenix (-34.2%!).

 

And for those of you who would say, well yeah, that's because of the Midwest housing market ... Chicago experienced a 17.5% drop and Minneapolis, -21.7%. And for those of you who would say, well yeah, that's because of the cheap values you find in the Rust Belt, you may have a point, but Detroit has countless more basement bargain prices than does Cleveland and still experienced a year-on-year drop of 24.5%.

 

Certainly not out of the woods, and certainly not a foregone conclusion, but it looks like Cleveland is relatively well-positioned to recover our 2005 high housing prices, compared to our peers. In Las Vegas or Phoenix, it may be years before owners recapture the value they lost on their homes.

Perception is the key word, considering sales are still down, over last year.

 

Year-on-year median sales prices are down, but relatively speaking, we were in excellent shape here. Every single one of the markets among the 20-city composite are down year-on-year. Cleveland, where the decline in median price was 6.2%, had the 3rd least severe slide in prices (Denver, decline of 4.6%, and Dallas, -4.1%, are the only cities that had less of a slide). The average city experienced a 17.1% drop in media sales price ... nearly 3 times as severe as our own. Be thankful you're not in Las Vegas (-32.0%!) or Phoenix (-34.2%!).

 

And for those of you who would say, well yeah, that's because of the Midwest housing market ... Chicago experienced a 17.5% drop and Minneapolis, -21.7%. And for those of you who would say, well yeah, that's because of the cheap values you find in the Rust Belt, you may have a point, but Detroit has countless more basement bargain prices than does Cleveland and still experienced a year-on-year drop of 24.5%.

 

Certainly not out of the woods, and certainly not a foregone conclusion, but it looks like Cleveland is relatively well-positioned to recover our 2005 high housing prices, compared to our peers. In Las Vegas or Phoenix, it may be years before owners recapture the value they lost on their homes.

 

Thats why I pointed out the AOL information.

 

I must point out, Cleveland didn't jump on if we build it they will come bandwagon like South Florida, Phoenix,Vegas, Atlanta, Washington, DC, Charlotte, or pick a spot in Cali.

 

We built conservatively.  I really think we should be working on rehabbing older more mature city neighborhoods.

 

I do not feel bad for anyone who bought a mcmansion or tacky tract home out in a place like Solon or Westlake and is now complaining that they can't pay (yes there are exceptions and the economy hit hard) for it or that the property taxes are too high. 

http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2009/07/new_foreclosure_cases_decline.html

 

New foreclosure case filings decline in Cuyahoga County

by Rich Exner, The Plain Dealer

Friday July 31, 2009, 9:00 AM

 

The Plain Dealer

New foreclosure case filings in Cuyahoga County are down this year. 

 

CLEVELAND -- New foreclosure case filings in Cuyahoga County dipped 13 percent during the first half of the year, though they still numbered in the thousands.

 

There were 6,863 new foreclosure cases filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court through June, down from 7,859 at the same time last year and 7,350 during the first six months of 2007.

 

More at http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2009/07/new_foreclosure_cases_decline.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090814/us_nm/us_usa_housing_cleveland_2

 

After years of decline, Cleveland aims to go green

By Nick Carey Nick Carey – Fri Aug 14, 8:12 am ET

 

CLEVELAND (Reuters) – Orchards and vineyards may soon spring from the blight of thousands of abandoned buildings in Cleveland, a city struggling to rise from years of decline and home foreclosures.

 

........

House prices rise in June, with Cleveland ranking among the best of 20 markets

Posted by kkroll August 25, 2009 09:30AM

Plain Dealer fileA home for sale in Mentor, Ohio.

House prices kept inching up from May to June, with Cleveland seeing the greatest improvement of 20 cities tracked in a much-watched report released Tuesday.

....

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2009/08/house_prices_rise_in_june_with.html

 

i am lookin for information on foreclosure properties for sale in cleveland and cincinnati. any places i can get detailed info and contact without having to pay? only site i know of is zillow.com but you have to sign up

Having just bought a house to fix up and rent out as I am assuming you are, any website is not the way to go.  Contact a realestate agent and have them put you on their email update list, giving them your location and pricing parameters.  I get an email from four different agents every morning between 8:30 and 9:15 am with the new single/multi family foreclosed properties.  If you want the contact information for the agents I use let me know.

Having just bought a house to fix up and rent out as I am assuming you are, any website is not the way to go.  Contact a realestate agent and have them put you on their email update list, giving them your location and pricing parameters.  I get an email from four different agents every morning between 8:30 and 9:15 am with the new single/multi family foreclosed properties.  If you want the contact information for the agents I use let me know.

 

Be sure to document.  and I hope you'll share your renovation progress with us.

Cincinnati: http://www.hcso.org/PublicServices/ExecutionSales/ExecPropertySales.aspx

 

You can usually find it through county site and at local court house.

Having just bought a house to fix up and rent out as I am assuming you are, any website is not the way to go. Contact a realestate agent and have them put you on their email update list, giving them your location and pricing parameters. I get an email from four different agents every morning between 8:30 and 9:15 am with the new single/multi family foreclosed properties. If you want the contact information for the agents I use let me know.

 

Be sure to document. and I hope you'll share your renovation progress with us.

 

I most certainly am!  The address is 3448 East 145th right off Kinsman.  The street is nice, lots of long time residents who are happy to have a bunch of young guys improving their neighborhood. 

 

I might need some suggestions for interior work MyTwoSense, I recall those pictures you had put up of your apartment!  Can we say Architectual Digest??

As far as Cleveland goes, try here:

 

http://sheriff.cuyahogacounty.us/propertysearch.asp

 

You might also want to check tax info, transfer history and general building info by going to the County Auditor's site

 

http://auditor.cuyahogacounty.us/REPI/default.asp

 

And you can't beat driving around. Any front doors with pieces of paper stuck in the middle of them might be foreclosures.

 

Good Luck!

As far as Cleveland goes, try here:

 

http://sheriff.cuyahogacounty.us/propertysearch.asp

 

I wonder how Ice Cube would feel if he knew they used his eyes for the "sexual predators" link?

no im looking at them to live in myself

 

thanks for those sites i'll look into them

As far as Cleveland goes, try here:

 

http://sheriff.cuyahogacounty.us/propertysearch.asp

 

I wonder how Ice Cube would feel if he knew they used his eyes for the "sexual predators" link?

 

I thought that was you.  The worst part of that website is I went to school with one person on that list and I see another one on the train.  I swear if it's the same person they work at a bank downtown.

Very interesting article...at the very least, it seems like Cleveland is making a recovery..

 

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/the_law_may_be_catching_up_wit.html

 

The law may be catching up with a wrecker of Cleveland's housing market -- editorial

by The editors

Monday August 31, 2009, 4:12 AM

 

Law enforcement officials finally are putting a face on the parasites whose greed fed the foreclosure crisis. Beachwood businessman Uri Gofman has been fingered as the mastermind behind the largest mortgage fraud scheme in Ohio.

 

More at http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2009/08/the_law_may_be_catching_up_wit.html

Going after predatory lenders after the fact is important.  It allows people people to maintain their faith in the rule of law and gets the perpetrators out of circulation.

 

However, we still gotta do something about all these empty houses.

It's being addressed in some innovative ways, although granted, the problem is probably still larger than the response that we can deliver. Still, from everything I've read, it appears that Cleveland is actually at the forefront of developing solutions to the vacancy crisis.

 

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,18003.0.html

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,3936.msg395067.html#msg395067

http://neighborhoodprogress.org/uploaded_pics/reimagining_final_screen-res_file_1236290773_file_1241529460.pdf

A new wrinkle in the foreclosure crisis.  Lenders are abandoning properties.  The Dayton Daily News has an extensive set of articles explaining this latest evolution in the housing crisis:

 

A New Crisis, Lenders Abandon Properties

 

 

Owner, neighbors, city left to deal with a home that no one has any incentive to improve.

 

By Ken McCall, Staff Writer Updated 11:43 PM Saturday, October 17, 2009

 

DAYTON — As if the mortgage foreclosure crisis wasn’t bad enough, sometime last year a new phenomenon began to emerge: Experts say mortgage lenders and banks began walking away from foreclosed properties, especially in urban areas.

 

The so-called “walkaways” can occur along several different paths, but the effect is the same — after threatening or getting foreclosure, the lender attempts to abandon the usually vacant property, leaving the original owner, the neighbors and the city to live with the damage.

 

>snip<

 

Then there is this very important article that provides the details on how this works and is also a caution that lower foreclosure numbers might not mean an improving abanodment/vacancy situation.  In fact it might be a sign of icnreaseing "walkaways".  This reminds me on how the declining unemployment numbers are misleading:

 

Drop in foreclosures called "very scary"

 

Lenders actions show they thing properties are not worth pursuing

 

John Carter, housing inspector with the city of Dayton, finds the decline in foreclosures “very scary,” because houses are continuing to go vacant.

 

For every 100 houses that he orders boarded up, he said, 40 to 50 properties have a mortgage but no foreclosure filed. When he contacts the banks, they sometimes tell him they have no plans to foreclose.

 

“That makes it look like the foreclosure numbers are going down, but in actuality the banks are not even starting foreclosure,” Carter said. “So there’s no number to track now.

 

 

The political response.  Dayton is having a city commission/mayors election and the candidates weigh in on the issue:

 

Dayton candidates discuss housing crisis plans

 

By Joanne Huist Smith, Staff Writer  Updated 1:13 AM Sunday, October 18, 2009

 

DAYTON — Simply stated, Dayton has more houses than residents to fill them.

 

Despite an ongoing demolition program that razed nearly 2,000 structures during nine years, the number of vacant buildings grows.

 

The Dayton City Commission must figure out how to fill the city’s nearly 13,000 vacant structures or right-size its building stock.

 

>snip<

 

...the article goes on to disucss the candidates positions and plans on the issue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dayton Daily News series continues with this excellent in-depth three-page article:

 

Oweners of Abandonded Properties Hard to Track Down

 

..the article is set of case studies, but also reports on a legislative solution being proposed in Columbus:

 

>snip<

 

...State Rep. Dennis Murray, D-Sandusky, has some ideas. He’s preparing a bill that would give lenders a set amount of time — say, 60 days — after filing a foreclosure on an abandoned property to do something with it or be stripped of their legal interest in it. Other provisions of the bill give judges more leeway in dealing with foreclosure cases.

 

Murray, a practicing attorney and a former Sandusky city commissioner, said his experience in city government helped him see the problem.

 

“You’d have weeds and abandoned cars or whatever at a property, and you couldn’t get anyone to take action,” he said.

 

He said he’s optimistic he can get the bill passed.

 

“It’s clearly needed,” he said. “You don’t have to go through but a single urban community these days — and, frankly most older suburban communities — to see there’s a real problem with these walkaways.”

 

>snip<

 

 

A map of cancelled sales in Mongtgomery County since 2006 (and note Huber Heights, which appeared in another thread).  Not sure if this violates fare use, but leave it to the mods.

 

Excellent, Excellent series of articles.

 

Everyone should read the 'Drop in foreclosures called "very scary"' article to see the various ways the lenders are addressing all their liens on houses.

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/drop-in-foreclosures-called-very-scary-352689.html

 

Everyone should also read the "tracking down owners of abandoned properties" article to see how it plays out in practice.

 

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/owners-of-abandoned-properties-are-hard-to-track-down-352641.html?showComments=true&page=1&more_comments=false

 

---------------------------

There has been a lot of discussions on other blogs about how houses can actually have a negative value, once you factor in the cost to return it to a legal, livable status.  etroit is usually used as the setting for the discussions. 

 

But in these articles, we see exactly how this is happening in Dayton as well, and how the lenders are reacting to it.  As the article says, in many cases the lenders are finding it more expensive to pay all the taxes, fines for lack up upkeep, and repairs due to vandalism and nature than what the house would be worth if it was fixed up.  However, they are retaining their lein on the house, with the "option to foreclose" later if the property value increases.

 

Amazing.

This is the one issue where the firm fist of the federal gov't covered in velvet of the billions of dollars in bailouts needs to get the banks out of the habit of destroying America's cities.

 

But in these articles, we see exactly how this is happening in Dayton as well, and how the lenders are reacting to it.

 

This is probably happening in Cleveland too, which has a similar foreclosure crisis/abandonment issue.

 

Here are some graphs based on articles in the stats.  The situation in Dayton was already deteriorating, but the recession and foreclosure crisis made it worse.

 

Note the downward trend beween 2001 and 2006, before the foreclosure crisis hit and the recession drove prices even lower.

 

 

Volume of sales per year has plunged.

 

 

This makes perfect sense. Here outside Lebanon in Warren County there is a house across the street that has been vacant for over a year - the husband worked in local construction and they moved out. Grass is a foot high around the house, there has been no apparent effort to list the house, yet, the same owners are listed on the auditor's web site.

 

As one commenter in the "very scary" DDN piece above stated, "... banks that don't foreclose, don't have to recognize the loss. ... Therefore, don't foreclose, don't recognize the loss, report great "earnings" and pay yourself a nice bonus."

 

To me this property, and also one with a similar pattern of same named owner ownership but no foreclosure action around the block from us, both seem to be in limbo. This explains it perfectly.

 

The banks probably want to sit on the properties because they couldn't get anyone to buy them at 2/3 appraised value even if they tried.

I wonder if the city of Dayton will benefit from BRAC in terms of home sales.

Hot off the presses:

 

HUD just announced the awards for the second neighborhood stabilization program (which was a competition, not a formula).  Ohio awards:

 

OH Total: $175,214,547

City of Columbus $23,200,773

City of Dayton $29,363,660

City of Springfield, Ohio $6,101,315

City of Toledo $10,150,840

Cuyahoga County Land Revitalization Corporation [the land bank] $40,841,390

Hamilton County, Ohio $24,068,968

State of Ohio $25,422,148

The Community Builders, Inc. $16,065,453

 

Nice job by Ohio groups with their apps.

Cincinnati: http://www.hcso.org/PublicServices/ExecutionSales/ExecPropertySales.aspx

 

You can usually find it through county site and at local court house.

 

Some amazing historic structures on the 1400 block of elm going to sheriff's auction next month.

 

Interesting article.....thanks KJP!

 

Cleveland sees big drop in foreclosure filings

By Ken Prendergast

February 05, 2010, 6:22PM

 

CLEVELAND While the number of property foreclosure filings increased in Cuyahoga County last year, they fell dramatically in one city.

 

Cleveland saw its foreclosure filings drop nearly 20 percent in 2009, according to data compiled by Case Western Reserve University’s Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development.

 

http://www.cleveland.com/sunpostherald/index.ssf/2010/02/cleveland_sees_big_drop_in_for.html

People don't seem to realize that they(banks) can still come after you, even years later,  to collect the difference on what is owed on the mortgage.

Where Home Prices Are Rising

 

by Francesca Levy, Forbes.com

Feb 25th, 2010

 

 

"...No. 2: Bay Village, Ohio

Median price: $240,015

Year-over-year price change: 32%

Year-over-year inventory change: -8%

Year-over-year price per square foot change: 8%..."

 

 

 

 

 

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/where-home-prices-are-rising

Gas prices drive up foreclosures

APR/ Markletplace

 

There are many reasons why families face foreclosure, like loss of income or rising health care costs. But several new studies show there's another factor closely linked with foreclosure rates: gas prices. Andrea Bernstein reports.

 

Listen to the story at:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/02/25/pm-commuter-foreclosures/#

Not sure where to post this, but it's fairly relevant here. Even though it's not about a specific demo.

 

A Change of Course for Cleveland’s Housing Court

The foreclosure crisis has resulted in record numbers of vacant homes in neighborhoods across the country, creating a host of problems for the residents who remain. And the problem is compounded, particularly in weak-market cities, when the owners of large vacant property inventories fail to maintain those properties, leaving them littered with garbage, overgrown with weeds, structurally deficient, or worse, violating local laws, and sticking cities with the costs.

 

Over the past several years, Judge Raymond Pianka of Cleveland’s Housing Court has made headlines for his innovative efforts to hold irresponsible landowners accountable for the condition of their neglected and blighting properties.

 

More:

http://americancity.org/buzz/entry/2377/

This is great, something that is long overdue.  I hope that they can come down on these absentee landlords much more severely.  The impact of vacant/neglected properties has far greater impact on the community than most credit.

^^ more from Judge Pianka:

 

Cleveland housing judge fines landowners $13 million for neglecting houses

Published: Monday, June 21, 2010, 12:24 PM   

Sandra Livingston, The Plain Dealer

 

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Housing Judge Raymond Pianka has fined two sister real estate companies in South Carolina more than $13 million -- the largest collective fines the court has imposed -- for their persistent failure to fix derelict property conditions.

 

In a pair of blistering decisions, Pianka fined Interstate Investment Group $11.9 million and Paramount Land Holdings more than $1 million. The cases involve major violations at eight properties and less significant ones at five others. The earliest complaints date to January 2008.

 

Pianka also criticized the city of Cleveland for recommending vastly lower fines, and the companies for their offer to contribute no more than $100,000 toward the resolution of their property violations.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/06/cleveland_housing_judge_fines.html

2 companies will appeal $13M in derelict housing fines in Cleveland

By Associated Press

2:58 PM EDT, June 22, 2010

 

CLEVELAND (AP) — Two South Carolina companies say they will appeal $13 million in fines for dilapidated houses in Cleveland.

 

Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka (pee-AHN'-kah) imposed the fines on Paramount Land Holdings and its property manager, Interstate Investment Group, both based in Gilbert, S.C.

 

http://www.fox8.com/news/sns-ap-oh--housingfines,0,7203216.story