Foreclosure Problem Expanding

Les Christie, staff writer for CNNMoney.com, writes yesterday about the blight being caused by the foreclosure epidemic that is briskly growing.

"Foreclosure filings are up 35 percent nationwide since a year ago, according to RealtyTrac."

Several hard-hit areas of the country are mentioned including Cleveland.

' "Foreclosures have helped destabilize not only Cleveland neighborhoods but inner ring suburbs like Shaker Heights and Euclid as well," said Jim Rokakis, treasurer of Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, one of the hardest-hit U.S. cities."

"And the worst may be yet to come. Rokakis said Cuyahoga County is on track for 16,000 foreclosures this year, up from about 3,500 annually in Cleveland during the mid-1990s."

'The impact can reach far beyond the affected homeowners. Rokakis says streets lined with foreclosures look like "mouths with teeth knocked out of them." '

The areas affected by foreclosures are as diverse as our country itself. From California to Florida and everywhere else in between.

Foreclosures not only affect the unfortunate homeowners but also the communities that surround them.

"Dan Immergluck, associate professor of city and regional planning at Georgia Tech, said that for every foreclosure within an eighth of a mile of a house - two and a half city blocks in every direction - the home's value drops by about 1 percent."

"The vacancies look bad enough, but it's what happens next that really hurts. "The bad people in a community find out right away when a house has been foreclosed on," said Hayden."

' "They come in and steal the copper plumbing. I've even seen them strip the aluminum siding off to sell. The houses become havens for drug dealers." '

-Bill Burniece