Foreclosures fuel Detroit blight, cost city $500 million
Detroit — Subprime lending and bargain-basement sales of foreclosed homes by banks and other mortgage lenders have helped create miles of blight in Detroit and a half-billion dollar liability for the city.
The Detroit News scoured thousands of property records to catalog the conditions of 65,000 mortgage foreclosures since 2005. The investigation shows for the first time the extent of damage to neighborhoods and the bill Detroit inherited when foreclosed homes were left open to destruction.
The toll is massive: 56 percent of mortgage foreclosures are now blighted or abandoned. Of those 36,400 homes, at least 13,000 are slated for demolition at a projected cost of $195 million, The News found. The city lost another $300 million in tax payments from foreclosed homes that Wayne County seized for nonpayment of taxes.
There's plenty of blame, from homeowners who signed loans they couldn't repay, to investors who failed to secure properties.
Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/longform/news/special-reports/2015/06/03/detroit-foreclosures-risky-mortgages-cost-taxpayers/27236605/
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