A recent Report in the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer discusses the ever increasing numbers of foreclosures plaguing Cuyahoga county and the recent publication of this information on the county's webpage.

Web site shows the extent of foreclosure problem
New feature maps location of homes

Mapping Cuyahoga County's foreclosures by ZIP codes produces an image like weather radar, with broad thick blotches signaling a nasty storm.

Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood, with more than 700 cases, is the center of the storm. But the downpour blankets the entire county, from Glenville to Solon, from Detroit-Shoreway to Olmsted Falls.

More than 7,000 foreclosures have been filed in Common Pleas Court since November. Cuyahoga County has the most foreclosures in Ohio, a state that leads the nation, but the big number may not have the impact of the neighborhood-by-neighborhood numbers.

The information recently became available on the county's Web site. It will help target efforts to keep people in their homes, stop blight and stabilize communities.

The hardest-hit ZIP code, 44105, includes Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood. Councilman Anthony Brancatelli said that as a large number of older residents move out or die, scam artists move in on the neighborhood.

Mortgage brokers and appraisers artificially inflate prices to match those of the neighborhood's newer homes, persuading out-of-town lenders to provide big mortgages. Then the scammers line up sham buyers and run away with the cash, leaving the homes to foreclosure and abandonment.

Cleveland will spend $1 million this year to board up and secure vacant houses. Brancatelli said wholesale demolition would be a better way to deal with so much abandoned property.

"There's no one who's going to take responsibility for it," he said. "It should just go away."

County hopes mapping will help slow foreclosures.

Mark Wiseman heads the county's new foreclosure-prevention program, which helps homeowners work out mortgage-repayment plans and steer clear of bad loans.

He does not need the ZIP code counts to know the problem is widespread.

"We've been at about a thousand cases a month countywide," he said. "Anybody I tell out of county, they gasp."

The county has told people who are in danger of foreclosure to contact United Way First Call for Help at 2-1-1 or 216-436-2000. Callers will be referred to agencies that will help work out repayment plans or, in the case of fraud, take legal action.

Wiseman can use detailed foreclosure information on the county Web site to plan prevention efforts. His office mails about 300 postcards a day to promote its services.

Housing Court judge is shocked by map.

Cleveland Housing Court Judge Raymond Pianka pushes banks to fix houses they own. He threatens to jail bank executives who skip hearings.

Pianka was astonished by the rate of foreclosures in his West Side ZIP code. He picked up postcards for the county's new foreclosure-prevention program to give to friends and neighbors who could lose houses.

Some names pop up repeatedly on the foreclosure list. Pianka recognizes some as landlords who accumulate rental houses and then end up in court when they can't keep up with repairs.

Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court has promised to more quickly resolve foreclosures, which can drag out for years. Pianka worries that speed may have unintended consequences.

"Who's going to buy these properties?" he said. "The real estate market is already soft."

Vacant houses hit for scrap metal.

City Councilman Roosevelt Coats, who represents Cleveland's South Collinwood neighborhood, calls on neighbors to watch and clean up abandoned houses so they don't attract drug parties and scrap-metal thieves.

Burglars have struck all over the city, breaking into vacant homes to strip them of copper plumbing and other metals.

Coats had grown used to seeing abandoned factories. He said that in recent years, his neighborhood has experienced a large increase in abandoned homes.

Second mortgages too appealing.

Councilman Kevin Conwell, who represents parts of Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood and University Circle, said unscrupulous lenders regularly bait his struggling constituents.

"Not a week goes by they're not dropping fliers in my ward, telling people how they can get a loan," he said.

Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Cleveland Democrat, has called for a congressional committee to visit Northeast Ohio and hold a hearing on the state's foreclosure crisis.

Councilwoman Sabra Pierce Scott, who also represents part of Glenville, said the city will work with its nonprofit community development corporations to identify vacant property and track down absentee landlords, she said.

"The impact is horrendous," she said. "Clearly, it impacts the quality of life of the people we represent."

To find the information, go to www.cuyahogacounty.us, click on "court docket" and then click on the civil search's "search by name" tab. On the next screen, click on "foreclosure property search" and fill in a choice of parcel number, address or ZIP code.

To view the online article, please click on the following link.

Cuyahoga County Foreclosures