Today at the Urban League, the Metropolitan Housing Coalition released a report called, Understanding and Responding to the Impact of Foreclosure Sales. This lunchtime paper release, held at the Urban League, was well attended by concerned citizens. Also present at the release were Metro Council members Attica Scott and Cheri Bryant-Hamilton, and official representatives from the offices of Congressman John Yarmuth and Attorney General Jack Conway. Such beefy attendance at such an event is a clear indication that Louisville residents and our elected officials are extremely concerned about the future of Louisville's residential property.
This report, researched and developed by Network Center for Community Change reflects upon neighborhood residential housing data from a report released in 2008, Louisville's Foreclosure Crisis, and compares it to the same neighborhoods in 2011.
Network for Community Change believes in empowering the people of Louisville, and providing with the resources to create the Louisville they want to see. Dana Jackson, executive director of Network for Community Change said, "We believe data changes things," reinforcing her organization's belief in the power of specific data over simple observations.
The findings of the report released today are not surprising, but are at the same time rather astounding.
In 2007, the Louisville spike in foreclosures was mostly attributed to banking practice. Today, the report says, "Mortgage default is more and more a result of deteriorating job and housing markets." Between 2007 and 2010, the number of foreclosure sales ordered in Jefferson County increased by 71.5%.
This sharp increase over such a short period of time has had drastic effects on not only the appearance of Louisville neighborhoods, but their value as well. During the paper release there were audible sounds of shock, remorse and frustration as Micah Herrmann announced some of the following findings, regarding property value.
Homes within 1/8th mile radius of a foreclosed home experienced anywhere from a -5.25% to a jaw-dropping -49.19% value loss between 2007 and 2011. For instance, the median property value of a home in the West End's California neighborhood was $56,760 in 2007, which dropped to $29,405 in 2011.
Cathy Hinko, of the Metropolitan Housing Coalition stated in response to these disturbing figures, "We all pay at some point for foreclosures."
It almost seems misleading that the word, "recovery," is in the title of this paper. The results of this paper make it quite apparent that there is obviously a long way to go before Louisville can consider itself even close to the road to healing its foreclosure wounds.
Today, Dana Jackson of Network Center for Community Change stated, the data within this report arms residents with the ammunition to tell their elected officials more than just, "My neighborhood is being hurt by foreclosures." Now they can call upon their council members or congressman and say, "Property value in my neighborhood has dropped 15% in the past three years."
As of the time of publishing this article, the paper Louisville's Foreclosure Recovery: Understanding and Responding to the Impact of Foreclosure Sales was not yet on the The Metropolitan Housing Coalition's website, but should be up shortly. Their website is: http://www.metropolitanhousing.org [4]
Find more information on Network Center for Community Change at: http://makechangetogether.org/ [5]
Img via Pam Newman
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