An encouraging trend has emerged in Maryland, Georgia, Connecticut, and New Jersey, which have adopted statewide vacant property registries or statewide regulations that provide guidance to municipalities to uniformly combat blight in their cities. Five years ago, Safeguard Properties was… Read more ›
The Cuyahoga Land Bank recently hosted a luncheon for members of the First Suburbs Consortium to discuss urban agriculture as a creative reuse strategy for vacant land. Cuyahoga Land Bank staff, representatives from Congresswoman Marcia Fudge’s Office, Berea, South Euclid,… Read more ›
CLEVELAND The “good, bad and ugly” are all in the eyes of developers when it comes down to three large and vacant buildings identified in a Larchmere Neighborhood Real Estate Market Study. And while “the condemned” can also be added… Read more ›
What is being dubbed the nation’s largest landbank — an independent agency set up to acquire vacant land and foreclosed homes and commercial property in Chicago and the suburbs — moved one step closer to setting up shop last week.… Read more ›
CLEVELAND Foreclosed homes can become a cancer to once-stable neighborhoods where blight can quickly metastasize. So there are two ways to prevent that cancer from spreading: demolish houses or renovate them. Demolition is cheaper and often preferred when there are… Read more ›
In a unanimous vote last week, the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved an ordinance to create the Cook County Land Bank Authority, giving the government a way to renovate and revitalize the rising number of vacant properties across the… Read more ›
REQUIRED READING: The boom and bust in housing that is a hallmark of the recent economic cycle has resulted in an unprecedented volume of foreclosures that has, in turn, left us with an extraordinary level of vacant and distressed properties.… Read more ›
The foreclosure crisis that devastated the economy in 2009 and 2010 was a many-headed monster, a disaster unlike anything the federal government had ever seen. And it’s becoming clear that not only did the government have no idea how to… Read more ›
Cuyahoga Land Bank President Gus Frangos and Cleveland City Councilman Tony Brancatelli, who is the Land Bank’s Board Chair, sat down recently with Cleveland Stories, a local access television program to discuss the operations of the Cuyahoga Land Bank, their… Read more ›
KENSINGTON – January 17, 2013 (WPVI) — Community blight across Pennsylvania may soon be a thing of the past. Governor Tom Corbett signed the “Land Banks” bill on Thursday, which aims to get rid of rundown, abandoned and often dangerous… Read more ›
The Cook County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved an ordinance to create the Cook County Land Bank Authority today, making it the most populous county in the United States to establish the innovative planning tool. Establishing the Cook County Land… Read more ›
Fannie Mae (FNMA) and Freddie Mac will let some borrowers who kept up payments as their homes lost value erase their debts by giving up the properties, helping Americans escape underwater loans while adding to losses at the mortgage giants… Read more ›
Many states are looking to the creation of land banks as a viable solution to the vacant and abandoned home issues plaguing the nation. It has become evident that the longer a home sits vacant, the more likely it is to lose value and… Read more ›
Party politics wasn’t on anyone’s agenda on December 7th, when Ohio Attorney General Michael DeWine visited a Slavic Village demolition site with elected officials from both sides of the political aisle. They came to put the spotlight on Cleveland’s impressive… Read more ›
TALLAHASSEE (Tampa Bay Times) — A “faster foreclosures” proposal that sparked consumer outcry and protest last year has resurfaced in a more moderate form, with a new bill filed this week by Rep. Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples. The bill, HB 87,… Read more ›
In the U.S., vacant and abandoned properties in foreclosure can sit empty for two years or more depending on the state. During that time, the property does not receive the day-to-day care a tenant or homeowner would provide. It also… Read more ›
On a beautiful spring day, it seemed like the heavens were smiling down on a group of students and community stakeholders that gathered at Metro Catholic School on W. 57th Street in Cleveland. Everyone came together to celebrate the completion… Read more ›