Registered Vacant Homes
reprinted from Tribune
Foreclosures, empty homes are on the rise in St. Paul
The trends, detailed in a report to the City Council,are a priority for the mayor and will be discussed at Wednesday's council meeting.
Myron P. Medcalf, Star Tribune
Last update: September 23, 2006 – 11:15 PM
School helicopters? Flight of fancy, or ...
The number of mortgage foreclosures in St. Paul has increased over the past three years and is expected to nearly triple 2003's total, according to a city report released Friday.
The report by the St. Paul Council Research Center, the research arm of the City Council, also said that the city has the highest number of vacant homes since statistics have been kept.
The City Council will address the report at Wednesday's meeting.
An economic downturn, disinvestment in neighborhoods and unethical lending practices are cited as some of reasons for the increase in vacant buildings and foreclosed homes.
In St. Paul, as in other parts of the country, the numbers are disproportionately in low-income districts and areas with minority populations, the report says.
Ann Mulholland, chief of staff for Mayor Chris Coleman, said that addressing vacancies and foreclosures is a priority for the mayor. Various organizations throughout the city had anticipated the rise in vacancies and foreclosures and begun talking about it prior to the report, she said.
"It matters a great deal when our neighborhoods aren't doing well," Mulholland said. "We can't sit on our laurels. We need to tackle it."
The report says that homes are vacated when owners can't sell them, the bank begins foreclosure proceedings or when a city condemns a dilapidated building for safety reasons.
Although recent economic changes and trends have affected the ability of some residents to pay their mortgages, predatory and subprime lending practices also are responsible for foreclosures, the report says.
Subprime lenders offer loans regardless of a person's credit history, and predatory lending forces homeowners to pay additional fees to increase the lender's profit.
Myron P. Medcalf • 651-298-1546 • mmedcalf@startribune.com
Foreclosures, empty homes are on the rise in St. Paul
The trends, detailed in a report to the City Council,are a priority for the mayor and will be discussed at Wednesday's council meeting.
Myron P. Medcalf, Star Tribune
Last update: September 23, 2006 – 11:15 PM
School helicopters? Flight of fancy, or ...
The number of mortgage foreclosures in St. Paul has increased over the past three years and is expected to nearly triple 2003's total, according to a city report released Friday.
The report by the St. Paul Council Research Center, the research arm of the City Council, also said that the city has the highest number of vacant homes since statistics have been kept.
The City Council will address the report at Wednesday's meeting.
An economic downturn, disinvestment in neighborhoods and unethical lending practices are cited as some of reasons for the increase in vacant buildings and foreclosed homes.
In St. Paul, as in other parts of the country, the numbers are disproportionately in low-income districts and areas with minority populations, the report says.
Ann Mulholland, chief of staff for Mayor Chris Coleman, said that addressing vacancies and foreclosures is a priority for the mayor. Various organizations throughout the city had anticipated the rise in vacancies and foreclosures and begun talking about it prior to the report, she said.
"It matters a great deal when our neighborhoods aren't doing well," Mulholland said. "We can't sit on our laurels. We need to tackle it."
The report says that homes are vacated when owners can't sell them, the bank begins foreclosure proceedings or when a city condemns a dilapidated building for safety reasons.
Although recent economic changes and trends have affected the ability of some residents to pay their mortgages, predatory and subprime lending practices also are responsible for foreclosures, the report says.
Subprime lenders offer loans regardless of a person's credit history, and predatory lending forces homeowners to pay additional fees to increase the lender's profit.
Myron P. Medcalf • 651-298-1546 • mmedcalf@startribune.com
posted by Bob at Sunday, September 24, 2006
8 Comments:
Disinvestment in the neighborhhod huh? What the hell did they expect? This is just the tip of the iceberg and the thing that makes it so nice is that the opposition won't have to do a damn thing to convince the voters to get rid of these thugs running city hall....the unintended consequences of their failed policy will be the thing that brings them down in the voting booth. I can see it all now....vacant & forclosed houses everywhere....lawsuits costing the taxpayers millions.....and an election on the horizon. Goodbye Ms. Lantry, and don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
The report says the city counsel will be adressing this at Wed. meeting. Question; How are they gonna discuss it when they have to keep their schedule with all the condemnation and demolishing have going on. Wouldn't that be considered a conflict of interest??
Kick people out opf their homes and now they are trying to figure out what has caused so many vacant and forclosed on homes. Duh, with mortgage payments not everyone can afford to stick thousands of dolars in their homes to satisfy the city, which is impossible to satisfy anyway. I don't blame people ofr saying the hell with it and letting the banks deal with the city and there codes.
The city council is not going to be dealing with this issue on Wednesday. They can"t. They have a lawsuit going on, and this is just an attempt to cover up and make it look like something else so it is not used against them in the lawsuit.
Having the nerve enough to say the Mayor cares abouty this is a bad joke. The Mayor derailed the ADHOC committee and white washed the outcome so the city wouldn't have to deal with the real issues with code enforcement, and rumor has it that his admistration working on doubling the size of this so called "problem property unit" so they can give the city some more of what has been the real problem all along. The biggest problem property of all in this town is city hall!
St.Paul deserves everything they get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How many of these homes were taken from a landlord and since it wasn't earning rents they couldn't pay their mortgage. Now the bank is left with a REGISTERED VACANT building that has depreciated since it must now meet code compliance. Sick vicious actions by a few lacking any empathy within city hall.
The bank won't be left with it for too long. At last Wednesdays city council meeting, they voted to tear down a bunch of froclosures, si I am assuming they had a mortgage on them. From the way they vote, it sounds like being able to do a code complainace would be a treasured privlege. I wonder how long mortgage companies will be willing to lend money in St. Paul with this kind of poltiical climate in the air.
Don't you think it's "full steam ahead" for them to get as many buildings condemned as possible? Their game of monopoly doesn't stop for nothing even a change of the guards. I believe coleman liked Kelly's "plan" and has picked up his game pieces and is seeing this thing through to the end.
Don't forget that Mayor Cloeman used to be Coucnilman Coleman, and as a Councilman, he wanted Andy Dawkins and the nazi type inspections programs that were being proposed. HE VOTED YES to confirm Dawkins. The only one who voted no was councilman Blakey, and he took a hike because he probably couldn't stomach what he was seeing. When people appeared before the Council begging for fairness, Coleman turned his back on them and voted for the status quo.....not just for landlords, but home owners, old ladys, poor people, all of them, any of them, whoever they could railroad into court and get a fine out of! Coleman was and is just like the rest of the City Council....he doesn't have the guts to stand up for what's right. He's a mouse that takes the easy way out all the time. During his campaign he pretended he was disturbed by the actions of the housing inppections department and people thought he would put a stop to the illegal behavior. Now that's he elected, he's following the same policies of the past. Talk to any housing inspector and they will tell you nothing has changed.....business as usual.
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