SitemapA Q3 2020 rise in vacant foreclosures signals a possible re-escalation in a hard-fought battle against neighborhood blight in which many cities have just recently gained the upper hand.
“We still have vacancy and blight issues but they are not crippling as they were a decade ago,” said Ian Beniston, executive director at the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation (YNDC), a nonprofit community development corporation in Youngstown, Ohio. “When we began a decade ago there was much more blight. There were more than 5,000 vacant properties. Last count there were 1,800 – which is still 1,800 too many.”
The rate of vacant foreclosures, also known as “zombie” foreclosures, dropped to an all-time low of 7.4% in Youngstown in the second quarter of 2020, according to data from ATTOM Data Solutions, which also shows the zombie foreclosure rate dropping to an all-time low of 3.0% nationwide in the second quarter.
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