NPR Reports on Baltimore’s Vacants to Value

Joe Schilling was recently interviewed by the Baltimore NPR-affiliate on the City’s Vacants to Value program. The program, established November 2010 by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, is focused on selling vacant properties within specific transitioning neighborhoods. Currently, Baltimore has an estimated 16,000 vacant properties, 10,000 of which are in need of demolition. For the remainder of these properties
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Mounting Costs of Demolition

Demolition of vacant and abandoned housing is a topic of growing importance, especially for legacy cities in the industrial heartland.  In some cities the controversy is over whether to mount a major demolition program, while in others the question is how to get more resources to accelerate demolition efforts. In Alan Mallach’s new report published
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Good News From A Servicer

If you haven’t seen the Shelterforce interview with Ocwen CEO, Ron Faris, see it here. Faris looked early at what was happening to loan collateral on streets and in neighborhoods in 2004 and attributes Ocwen’s early progressive approach to loan modification, including principal reduction, to a recognition of realities on the ground.  True, the GSEs
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Winnipeg Model to the Rescue?

Could using an immigration policy to attract potential urban residents help reverse population decline in the city of Detroit? Possibly. The following article looks at the steps Winnipeg took torevise its declining population and tax base by enticing new immigrants to settle there. As a potential urban revitalization strategy, the article lays out several policy
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Raze the roof – Cleveland’s tear-it-down approach

A slow process of out-migration, loss of jobs, loss of population and the recent housing crisis has left cleveland with a host vacant homes, approximately 13,000.  Due to rehabilation costs exceeding potential sales prices and a mis-match in productive (land/economic) uses, nearly 80% of these vacant homes make fiscal sense to demolitish. This has left the city and remaining neighborhoods
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