The Observation Deck

The importance of securing and enhancing Lakewood’s housing stock has come up recently in a few OD threads. I thought I would do a bit of quick research to show what’s out there.

According to http://www.realtytrac.com, Lakewood has:

• 202 bank-owned properties;
• 23 sheriff’s sale properties; and
• 206 pre-foreclosure/default properties.

(http://www.realtor.com shows 400 total listings for Lakewood but does not segment by category.)


Of the 202 bank-owned properties:

• 93 are at $50,000 or less;
• 35 are between $51,000 and $69,000;
• 18 are between $70,000 and $79,000;
• 17 are between $80,000 and $89,000; and
• Six are between $90,000 and $100,000.


We all know that banks aren't the best owners. Well kept, occupied homes protect us all and add taxpayers to the mix. What, if anything, is our local government doing, or can our local government do, to get these 202 properties back into the hands of responsible owners/investors?

Buy them, take them down, offer to sell the green space to the neighbor at a good price.

Or...

Have some program to put them in the hands of people with a proven track record of turning 50,000 crap holes into 150,000 properties. Not everybody is up to the task. But perhaps you could vet the people who are and hook them up with low interest loans.

Or... Work with habitat for humanity to rehab some of them...

The ideas are out there. I hear them all around. All it takes is someone with the balls to take the first step.

Or... we could just let the banks not cut the grass and in 5 years we will still have 90 percent of them.

Jim DeVito wrote:Buy them, take them down, offer to sell the green space to the neighbor at a good price.

Actually, let me propose something similar. At the Madison-end of my parent's street, a house had been on the market for ages. This past winter, it was demolished and eventually it will become additional parking for the apartments/store fronts facing Madison.

I think it would free up space on a lot of congested side-streets if this was done more often.

On the Madison end of my street as well there was a double I believe that was up for what seemed like forever. It is gone and now an empty lot sits.

I think some of the houses could be donated to charities, childrens group homes or something. A home like setting for some "special" kids getting therapy. Or heck, I will take one of those homes and turn it into a lovely rescue.....LOL.

Cool responses. I’m not sure there is ONE answer.

Some cities have developed local government driven land banks to acquire bank owned properties still with a certain amount of value. (Here’s a link to a land bank best practices paper written by CSU - http://urban.csuohio.edu/glefc/publicat ... k_best.pdf).

Some questions come to mind as I rethink the topic and read the comments on this thread:

1. Is there a sense that the foreclosure issue is harming the value of Lakewood’s properties and neighborhoods?

2. What is Mayor Fitzgerald’s reaction to the fact that more than 200 Lakewood properties are currently bank owned and that another 200 are in process of becoming so?

3. Is there a sense that these properties are “moving,” that is, being sold? Is the marketplace responding?


Who should be invited to participate should someone from the community wish to convene a Lakewood Housing Forum (then possible subsequent summit) to respond to a questionnaire and discuss this issue in front of a public audience?

• Mayor Fitzgerald
• Local real estate executives
• Local banking officials
• A few investors
• Neighbors