Thread: 25,000 vacant homes in Philadelphia, 600 torn down each year

Gathering for the Funeral of a Home


By Kathy Matheson
Monday, May 26, 2014 | Updated 1:11 PM EDT

[IMG]http://media.nbcphiladelphia.com/images/328*185/homefuneral2.jpg[/IMG]

AP

This Friday, May 23, 2014 photo, shows an abandoned home in the impoverished Mantua section of Philadelphia. A scheduled cultural and memorial project called “Funeral for a Home” will celebrate the dilapidated row house's colorful life before it is knocked down.

Organizers from Temple University say it’s an effort to commemorate neighborhood history in a city where about 600 houses are torn down each year and 25,000 others sit vacant. A developer plans to build affordable housing on the site. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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A rundown row house in the impoverished Mantua section of Philadelphia had a colorful, centurylong record of occupancy before its last longtime residents died and it became a symbol of urban blight.

Now, the boarded-up structure is getting quite the send-off.
Hymns and eulogies will mark the last moments of the Melon Street residence before it's knocked down Saturday. A hearse-like dumpster will carry the debris down the block, trailed by a procession of drill teams, bands and local residents. A community meal will follow.
Organizers randomly chose the building for a cultural project called “Funeral for a Home,” which aims to honor neighborhood history in a city where officials say about 600 houses are torn down each year and 25,000 others sit vacant.

Wait, they're doing what? For a house?

That was the initial reaction from a local pastor, neighbors and others first approached with the idea by Robert Blackson, an administrator at Temple University's Tyler School of Art.

But all eventually signed on to the symbolic gesture, which Blackson said also could resonate in places like St. Louis, Buffalo and Detroit -- other cities whose once vibrant landscapes have been transformed by abandoned eyesores.

“When you see these blighted homes, you forget that they were a thriving part of the community at one point,” Blackson said.

The festive nature of the “home-going” service -- as opposed to a somber rite -- is designed to reflect more on the life of the Philadelphia row house than on its death, he said.

It's unclear when the two-bedroom home was built, though the address has been consistently occupied since at least 1900, according to census and city records examined by organizers.

Researchers used the house to trace the arc of Mantua's population from mostly Irish-Americans in the early 1900s to a mix that included Russian Jews by the 1920s and an influx of blacks from the South over the next couple of decades.

The block was solidly African-American when Louisiana native Leona Richardson bought the house in 1946, raising her only son, Roger, there while working as a department store seamstress.

Fred Stokes, 63, a neighbor who grew up with Roger and still lives on the block, recalled the mother and son as good people. The street was a family oriented community that was “full of life,” Stokes said.

But by the time Leona Richardson died in 2002, Mantua had become one of the city's poorest and most dangerous areas. Roger died in 2009; family members sold the property not long after. The house has been unoccupied for months, surrounded by vacant lots.

Leona Richardson's niece, Annie Hunt of Newark, Ohio, had never visited the house until she handled its sale. At first, she couldn't understand why Blackson wanted to commemorate the forlorn property with a funeral.

“I had trouble wrapping my brain around it, I really did,” said Hunt, who now plans to attend the service as a way to honor her aunt. “I had never heard of such a thing.”

Joe Schilling, who leads the Sustainable Communities Initiative at Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, said a funeral “could be very cathartic” for longtime Mantua residents grappling with how the neighborhood has changed and hoping for better things to come.

“Demolishing, in many cases, is the right thing to do,” said Schilling. “By celebrating the history and legacy of this building, it's letting go in a much more humane way.”

In the end, there is also the promise of resurrection. The developer that purchased the house for $15,000 in 2012 -- and gave permission for the funeral and demolition -- plans to build affordable housing on the site.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/...260672961.html

1. The Abandoned City of Detroit - Photography: Zach Fein
   
   zfein.com/photography/detroit/
   Detroit has over 10,000 vacant homes. The combination of prevalent abandonments and rampant arson has led the city to purchase entire blocks and raze them...

1. Abandon Properties:Facing the Challenge - Cleveland ...
   
   www.clevelandhousingcourt.org/hc_rd_b.html
   Cleveland Housing Court
   The crisis is focused on the bulk of Cleveland's housing stock which consists of 100,000 one- and two-family houses whose median age is 80 years. ... The crisis in vacant, abandoned and foreclosed property has forged a coalition to address ...

Cities with the most abandoned homes

Mike Sauter, 24/7 Wall Street

(Photo: Carlos Osorio, AP)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• About 20% of homes in foreclosure have been abandoned and stand vacant
• Many of the cities are in states with some of the longest average foreclosure times
• Most of the cities saw severe price declines during the crisis

One in five homes in the foreclosure process stands vacant after being abandoned by owners. While the housing market is on the mend, some cities still struggle as they wait for thousands of homes to complete the process.

Nearly one in three homes in foreclosure are abandoned in Indianapolis. In five separate metro areas in Florida, more than one in four homeowners have given up. Based on data provided by RealtyTrac for the 101 largest metro areas, these are the cities where residents are abandoning their homes.

Many of the cities with the most homes in foreclosure that are abandoned were among the hardest hit during the housing crisis. While there are exceptions, "these are areas where a big home price bubble popped," RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist told 24/7 Wall St. Indeed, home prices fell by more than the national average during the housing crisis in six of the 10 cities. In Lakeland and Las Vegas, prices fell by more than 40% in that time, compared to a national decline of just 20.8%.

The amount of time it takes for the foreclosure process to complete in some of these cities may, as Blomquist explained, be a major factor in how many residents decide to give up on their properties. Several of these cities are in states with long average foreclosure times. In Florida, which has two cities on this list, the average foreclosure took 893 days to complete, the third longest time in the country.

While some of these cities have shorter-than-average foreclosure processing time, recent legislation may have encouraged homeowners to give up. Atlanta is located in Georgia, which has the seventh shortest average foreclosure time of 199 days. "But that's up 26% from a year ago," explained Blomquist. These changing rules may be leading homeowners to give up on their homes, he added.
24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest vacancy rate among homes in foreclosure, based on data provided by RealtyTrac for the 101 most populous metropolitan areas. RealtyTrac also provided on a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level median home price for the total number of housing units in the area, population, institutional purchases information and foreclosures for these areas, all of which are for most recent available period. They also provided average time to foreclose on a state level, as of the first quarter of 2013. We also reviewed long-term home price changes through the fourth quarter of 2012 from the Corelogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

These are the cities with the most abandoned homes.

10. Lakeland, Fla.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 27.7%
> Total vacated homes: 2,010
> Median home price: $90,000 (13th lowest)
Nearly 28% of homes in foreclosure in the Lakeland area are vacant. Among the possible reasons why homeowners gave up on their properties is the 41.7% housing price drop from the end of 2007 through the end of 2012, one of the worst declines in the nation.The foreclosure process in Florida takes nearly 900 days on average, among the most in the nation. This may also be an explanation for why so many homeowners in foreclosure have moved out.

9. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Ga.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 28.1%
> Total vacated homes: 3,071
> Median home price: $145,600 (48th lowest)
Home prices in Atlanta fell by 26% from the end of 2007 to the end of last year. This figure might have been far worse if not for the 10% home value increase in home value between the fourth quarters of 2011 and 2012. But the improvement in prices last year — as well as the 42% year-over-year decline in foreclosures during the first quarter — came too late for many home owners. According to RealtyTrac, of the 10,931 homes in foreclosure in the area, roughly 28% have been vacated.

8. Boise City-Nampa, Idaho
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 28.2%
> Total vacated homes: 361
> Median home price: $94,001 (15th lowest)
The median home price in Boise was just $94,001 in April, and foreclosure activity fell by nearly 37% from the year before during the first quarter of 2013. The homes in the area are fairly inexpensive, yet many are still in foreclosure or have even been abandoned. Home prices in Boise are down by 31.1% from the end of 2007 to the end of 2012, despite a rebound during 2012.

7. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 28.7%
> Total vacated homes: 1,000
> Median home price: $75,000 (7th lowest)
Several positive signs suggest that the housing market in the Detroit area has recovered considerably. Home prices fell nearly 36% between 2007 and the end of 2012, a period that covers much of the U.S. housing crisis and recession. But from the end of 2009 to the end of 2012, prices rose at a faster clip than any other major metro area. Still, the Detroit area has suffered from massive population declines and the city proper is on the brink of bankruptcy as many residents and homeowners have left. Few metro areas have lower home prices than Detroit, where the median home price was just $75,000 in April.

6. Las Vegas-Paradise, Nev.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 28.8%
> Total vacated homes: 3,089
> Median home price: $146,357 (49th lowest)
Home prices in the Las Vegas area fell between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2012 by 47.7%, more than in any other metro area. But even with a 17.6% decline in foreclosure activity in the first quarter of this year — better than about half of the nation's large metro areas — Las Vegas remains a hub for foreclosures. Also in the first quarter of 2013, nearly 8,400 properties had foreclosure filings against them, while at last count there were roughly 10,700 total homes in foreclosure. The relatively long foreclosure process of 447 days on average may also lead to homeowners ditching their properties.

5. Wichita, Kan.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 30.4%
> Total vacated homes: 90
> Median home price: $140,000 (43rd lowest)
Wichita stands out among the metro areas on this list. Based of the most recently available data, 30.4% of foreclosed homes in Wichita were abandoned. According to RealtyTrac's Blomquist, Wichita is an outlier. Home prices in the area did not decline considerably during the recession, falling just 0.4% in the five years ending with the fourth quarter of 2012. The area also had less than 300 total homes in foreclosure at last count, fewer than all but five of the nation's largest metro areas.

4. Birmingham-Hoover, Ala.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 30.6%
> Total vacated homes: 375
> Median home price: $155,000 (44th highest)
The Birmingham area was not hit as hard during much of the recession as the rest of the United States. Home prices fell by just 8.8% between late 2007 and late 2012, well below the 20.8% decline nationwide in that time. In the more recent years, Birmingham's housing market reversed its trend. Between late 2009 and late 2012, the area's home prices dropped 5.5%, while nationwide home prices fell by just 0.6%. Many homeowners likely made the choice to vacate quickly once the foreclosure process had begun. During the first quarter of 2013, it took just 186 days, on average, to foreclose a home in Alabama, less than the average time required in all but four other states.

3. St. Louis, Mo.-Ill.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 31.0%
> Total vacated homes: 1,581
> Median home price: $135,000 (38th lowest)
As of the most recent count, the St. Louis metro area had more than 5,000 homes in foreclosure, with more than 1,500 of these sitting vacant. During the recession, home prices in St. Louis did not slide as much as they did in many other areas where foreclosures and vacated properties are abundant. Home prices declined by 11.4%, versus 20.8% nationwide, between the fourth quarter of 2007 and the end of last year. Still, home prices in St. Louis did not have as far to decline compared to other large cities. According to RealtyTrac, the median home price in the area was just $135,000 in April.

2. Jacksonville, Fla.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 31.3%
> Total vacated homes: 5,475
> Median home price: $142,099 (46th lowest)
Jacksonville area home prices dropped by 32.4% between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2012, one of the larger drops in the nation during that time. But even as home prices began to rise in 2012, many residents still found themselves unable to afford or sell their homes. While the number of foreclosure filings in the majority of large metro areas fell from the year before during the first quarter of 2013, in Jacksonville it jumped 17.3%. According to the most recently available data, there were nearly 17,500 homes in foreclosure in the area, of which nearly 5,500 were empty. Possibly contributing to the rising number of vacant homes is that the average foreclosure takes nearly 900 days in Florida, giving residents ample time to leave their homes.

1. Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 31.8%
> Total vacated homes: 2,488
> Median home price: $150,000 (48th highest)
Nearly one-third of foreclosed properties in the Indianapolis metro area were vacant. Among the likely contributors to this is that in the first quarter of 2013, it took 607 days, on average, to foreclose a property in Indiana. There are more than 7,800 homes in foreclosure in Indianapolis, with nearly 2,500 of them vacant. Foreclosure filings in the first quarter of 2013 were down by nearly 25% from the year before, although there were still 3,858 foreclosure filings in the quarter.
24/7 Wall St. is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news and commentary. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...homes/2447613/

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