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United States Government Accountability Office. "Mortgage Foreclosures: Additional Mortgage Servicer Actions Could Help Reduce the Frequency and Impact of Abandoned Foreclosures." 1-86. Washington, D.C.: U.S. GAO, 2010. Summary: "Entities responsible for managing home mortgage loans--called servicers--may initiate foreclosure proceedings on certain delinquent loans but then decide to not complete the process. Many of these properties are vacant. These abandoned foreclosure--or "bank walkaway"--properties can exacerbate neighborhood decline and complicate federal stabilization efforts. GAO was asked to assess (1) the nature and prevalence of abandoned foreclosures, (2) their impact on communities, (3) practices that may lead servicers to initiate but not complete foreclosures and regulatory oversight of foreclosure practices, and (4) actions some communities have taken to reduce abandoned foreclosures and their impacts. GAO analyzed servicer loan data from January 2008 through March 2010 and conducted case studies in 12 cities. GAO also interviewed representatives of federal agencies, state and local officials, nonprofit organizations, and six servicers, among others, and reviewed federal banking regulations and exam guidance. Among other things, GAO recommends that the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) require servicers they oversee to notify borrowers and communities when foreclosures are halted and to obtain updated valuations for selected properties before initiating foreclosure. The Federal Reserve neither agreed nor disagreed with these recommendations. OCC did not comment on the recommendations. Using data from large and subprime servicers and government-sponsored mortgage entities representing nearly 80 percent of mortgages, GAO estimated that abandoned foreclosures are rare--representing less than 1 percent of vacant homes between January 2008 and March 2010. GAO also found that, while abandoned foreclosures have occurred

Mallach, Alan. "Meeting the Challenge of Distressed Property Investors in America's Neighborhoods." 1- 91. New York, NY: LISC, 2010. Introduction: "The mortgage crisis that has gripped the United States since 2007 has resulted in property owners losing millions of properties through foreclosure, with a loss of hundreds of billions of dollars in individual and community assets. Through the foreclosure process, the majority of these properties have been taken back by the mortgage lender and become 'real-estate-owned' or REO properties. For the first year or so after foreclosures took off in 2007, with lenders unprepared to deal with these properties and few buyers of any sort in the marketplace, REO properties often went begging. By the end of 2008, however, that was no longer the case. Private property investors - from "mom & pop" investors buying one or two properties to Wall Street firms and consortia of foreign investors buying entire portfolios - had moved back into the market in large numbers. Since early 2009, the ranks of investors have steadily grown, while it has become less accurate to refer to them as 'REO investors'. Rather than waiting for properties to come into lenders' REO inventories, distressed property investors - as they are more appropriately known - have been increasingly buying houses through short sales, buying non-performing mortgages, or bidding against foreclosing lenders at foreclosure sales. Today, their presence is a major factor in the marketplace of nearly every metropolitan area experiencing large numbers of foreclosures. Their activities are having a powerful effect on neighborhoods generally and on the neighborhood stabilization efforts of cities and non-profit community development corporations (CDCs) in particular. Their effect, however, is a matter of considerable disagreement and even controversy. The purpose of this report is twofold: first, to offer insight into how distressed property investors operate, and how their activ

Been , Vicki and Voicu, Ioan, "The Effect of Community Gardens on Neighboring Property Values" (2006). New York University Law and Economics Working Papers. Paper 46. http://lsr.nellco.org/nyu_lewp/46 DRAFT PAPER - PLEASE DO NOT CITE WITHOUT PERMISSION Abstract: "Cities across the United States increasingly are debating the best way to use vacant "infill" lots. The community garden movement is one of the major contenders for the space, as are advocates for small public "pocket" parks and other green spaces. To allocate the land most efficiently and fairly, local governments need sound research about the value of such gardens and parks to their host communities. At the same time, cities are looking for new ways of financing the development and maintenance of public garden and park space. Some have turned to tax increment financing to generate resources, other are introducing impact fees or special assessments to cover the costs of urban parks. In order to employ such financing mechanisms, both policy concerns and legal constraints require local governments to base their charges on sound data about the impacts green spaces have on the value of the neighboring properties that would be forced to bear the incidence of the tax or fee. Despite the clear public policy need for such data, our knowledge about the impacts community gardens and other such spaces have on surrounding neighborhoods is quite limited. No studies have focused specifically on community gardens, and those that have examined the property value impacts of parks and other open space are cross-sectional studies inattentive to when the park opened, so that it is impossible to determine the direction of the causality of any property value differences found. The existing literature also has paid insufficient attention to qualitative differences among the parks studied and to differences in characteristics of the surrounding neighborhoods that might affect the parks' impacts

Accordino, John and Johnson, Gary (2000). Addressing the Vacant and Abandoned Property Problem. Journal of Urban Affairs, 22(3), 301-315. Abstract: "Vacant and abandoned property is increasingly recognized as a significant barrier to the revitalization of central cities. This study sheds some light on the nature of the property abandonment problem and on current city efforts to address it. It is based upon the findings of a survey of the 200 most populous central cities in the United States, conducted during the summer and fall of 1997, and on follow-up interviews with a portion of the survey population, conducted during the summer of 1998. The findings of the survey and interviews indicate that vacant and abandoned property is perceived as a significant problem by elected and appointed officials in the nation's largest central cities. This type of property affects many aspects of community life, including housing and neighborhood vitality, crime prevention efforts, and commercial district vitality. Single- and multi-family housing, retail properties and vacant land are the most problematic types of vacant and abandoned property for most cities. Cities use a variety of techniques to address this problem, including aggressive code enforcement, tax foreclosure, eminent domain, and cosmetic improvements. One-third of the cities surveyed use a variety of other innovative tools to combat the vacant and abandoned property problem. Nevertheless, current efforts to combat the problem suffer from a number of shortcomings that are described in the article."

Cleveland Community Research Partners and ReBuild Ohio. (2008). "$60 Million and Counting: The Cost of Vacant and Abandoned Properties to Eight Ohio Cities." Executive Summary: "This research documents the magnitude and cost of the vacant and abandoned properties problem in eight Ohio cities Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Ironton, Lima, Springfield, Toledo, Zanesville. The research found: * 25,000 vacant and abandoned properties * Widespread vacancies in both large and small cities * $15 million in annual city service costs * $49 million in cumulative lost property tax revenues to local governments and school districts * Weakened neighborhood housing markets with evidence of property flipping * Limited capacity of cities, on their own, to track and address vacant and abandoned properties

Nassaure, J.I., VanWieren, R., Wang, Z., and Kahn, D. 2008. "Vacant Land as a Natural Asset: Enduring Land Values Created by Care and Ownership." Genesee Institute, Flint, MI. "Vacant land can be managed to create enduring environmental values. This project analyzed vacant properties managed by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority (GCLBA) to show how they can be managed to achieve inviting neighborhoods and to protect and build long-term ecosystem services. The project marries the intrinsic strengths of Genesee County - especially its water resources - with its immediate strengths: citizens' engagement and sense of ownership in their own neighborhoods. It takes these strengths one step further by showing how to create enduring value on vacant land by encouraging community engagement in the care and environmental stewardship of vacant property. To achieve these goals, this report suggests that the GCLBA manage its properties across three times frames: NOW - FOR MAINTENANCE. With primary concern for maintaining property in cost-efficient ways that enhance neighborhood appeal while protecting ecosystem services. TRANSFORMATION - AS A RIPENING AMENITY FOR THE FUTURE. Using the locations of the more than 4000 GCLBA properties across the county as an opportunity to create more attractive neighborhoods and environmentally beneficial landscape patterns for the future. FUTURE - AS LAND USE TYPES. Identifying future land uses and landscape characteristics of GCLBA properties to enhance the value of surrounding properties as well as enhance ecosystem services for the entire community."

Leigh, Nancey Green, and Sarah L. Coffin (2005). "Modeling the Relationship among Brownfields, Property Values, and community Revitalization. Housing Policy Debate." 16(2), 257-280. Abstract: "The main focus in redeveloping brownfields is on the most marketable properties, typically found in the healthiest urban neighborhoods. As evidenced by the rapid redevelopment that many communities are experiencing, this approach is helping to return brownfields to productive use. Yet not all brownfields are being cleaned up, nor are there enough resources to do so soon. Thus, from the perspective of community revitalization and of economic justice, we need to ask whether it matters which properties in which neighborhoods are receiving these scarce funds. That is, does the existence of brownfields in a neighborhood affect residential property values and capacity for revitalization? To answer these questions, we use hedonic modeling to determine the impact of brownfields on property values in Atlanta and Cleveland. Our results suggest that short‐term economic efficiency is neither the most appropriate nor the only criterion on which to base public investment decisions for remediation."

Immergluck, Dan. "Neighborhood in the Wake of the Debacle: Intrametropolitan Patterns of Foreclosed Properties." Urban Affairs Review 46,1 (2010): 3-36. A key aspect of the U.S. subprime crisis was the accumulation of vacant, foreclosed properties in many neighborhoods and localities. This article describes zip-code-level patterns of foreclosed homes, or what are typically called "real estate owned" (REO) properties, at the peak of the subprime crisis in late 2008 and estimates a model of REO accumulation from 2006 to 2008. Three key findings emerge. First, during the peak of the subprime foreclosure crisis in late 2008, large central cities, on average, experienced higher levels of REO per mortgageable property than suburban areas. This contradicts some suggestions that the crisis was primarily centered in suburban or exurban communities. Second, the suburbanization of REO varied across two key types of metropolitan areas, with boom-bust regions experiencing more suburbanization than weak- or mixed-market metros. Finally, determinants of zip-code-level REO accumulation included high-risk lending activity and the age of housing stock. After controlling for these and other variables, neither the central city versus suburban location of a zip code nor the proportion of residents commuting over 30 minutes was significantly associated with REO growth. The intrametropolitan location of a zip code appears to have been a less important factor in REO growth than the fact that a large amount of development in newer communities was financed during the subprime boom.

De Sousa, C., Wu, C. and L. Westphal. 2009. "Assessing the Effect of Publicly Supported Brownfield Redevelopment on Surrounding Property Values." Economic Development Quarterly 23(2): 95-110. Abstract: "This study measures and compares the impact of publicly assisted brownfield redevelopment on nearby residential property values in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. It also examines the influence of land use, neighborhood characteristics, and other redevelopment factors on this impact. The research approach incorporates a hedonic method to quantify nearby property value effects at more than 100 brownfield projects, and stakeholder interviews are used to assess perceived impacts to real estate conditions. The results reveal that the spillover effect in terms of raising surrounding property values is significant in both quantity and geographic scope, as redevelopment led to a net increase of 11.4% in nearby housing prices in Milwaukee and 2.7% in Minneapolis. It also reveals that project size, value, and the amount of public funding have minor impacts on this effect; factors such as proximity to major roads, distance from rail, and higher incomes have greater positive impacts."

Dewar, Margaret. "Selling Tax-Reverted Land: Lessons from Cleveland and Detroit." Journal of the American Planning Association 72, no. 2 (2006): 167-80. "Property abandonment is widespread in many northeastern and Midwestern cities. Some cities succeed better than others at moving abandoned properties to new uses. Comparing Detroit and Cleveland, where indicators of demand for land look similar, reveals that Cleveland's land bank has been an effective approach to selling tax-reverted land for reuse, while Detroit's method of land disposition has been less successful. Cleveland integrates its approach into the mayor's agenda for housing development and supports redevelopment with many complementary efforts. Cleveland's land bank conveys land with clear title, has an accurate property inventory, "banks" property, and sells for predictable, low prices." (from article)

Samsa, Matthew J. (2008). "Reclaiming Abandoned Properties: Using Public Nuisance Suits and Land Banks to Pursue Economic Redevelopment," Cleveland State Law Review 56:189-232. Excerpt from Report: "This Note examines the methods of attacking abandonment. The next section, Part II, describes the problems presented by abandoned and vacant housing. Part III examines the effectiveness of code enforcement and traditional tax foreclosure. Part IV analyzes privatized nuisance abatement suits and receiverships. Part V discusses land banks. Part VI argues that using broadly empowered privatized nuisance abatement suits for individual parcels and land banks for mass acquisitions is the most effective means of addressing abandoned property, and Part VII concludes with a brief review of the overall abandonment discussion.

Alexander, Frank S (2008). "Landbanking as Metropolitan Policy. Blueprint for American Prosperity." Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution. Available at http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2008/1028_mortgage_crisis_alexander.aspx Executive Summary: "Stressed by the catastrophic mortgage foreclosure crisis and the long-run decline of older, industrial regions, communities around the country are becoming increasingly burdened with vacant and abandoned properties. In order to alleviate the pressures on national prosperity caused by these derelict properties, the federal government needs to advance policies that support regional and local land banking for the 21st century. Land banking is the process or policy by which local governments acquire surplus properties and convert them to productive use or hold them for long term strategic public purposes. By turning vacant and abandoned properties into community assets such as affordable housing, land banking fosters greater metropolitan prosperity and strengthens broader national economic well-being."

Griswold, Nigel G., and Patricia E. Norris (2007). "Economic Impacts of Residential Property Abandonment and the Genesee County Land Bank in Flint, Michigan." The MSU Land Policy Institute. Available at http://www.smartgrowth.umd.edu/pdf/BestThesisAward2007PDF.pdf Summary: "This study documents work by the Genesee County Land Bank (GCLB) to alleviate the burden of abandoned and tax-foreclosed properties in the City of Flint, Michigan. The costs of property abandonment and direct and indirect effects of GCLB programs are estimated. Results suggest that abandoned housing does indeed have a negative impact on the values of houses in close proximity and that GCLB programs ameliorate these negative impacts."

Madar, Josiah, Been, Vicki, and Amy Armstrong. "Transforming Foreclosed Properties into Community Assets." NYU Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, 2009. The report reviews the main issues discussed at a roundtable hosted by the Furman Center and supported by the Ford Foundation on May 2, 2008. It describes market issues for foreclosed properties, as well as opportunities for purchasing, reselling, and rehabilitating foreclosed properties. Additionally, the paper includes case studies that describe successful strategies that have been employed by various cities and local governments.

Nassauer, Joan Iverson and Rebekah VanWieren. 2008. "Vacant Property Now & Tomorrow: Building Enduring Values with Natural Assets." Genesee Institute, Flint MI. This is a special report for Genessee County Land Bank on how to strategically green vacant properties. It provides a strategic framework for short-, medium-, and long-term use following principles of ecological land use design. The report also provides seven reuse typologies spanning open space and habitat to urban parks and neighborhood gateways.

Coulton, Claudia, Michael Schramm, and April Hirsh. "Beyond Reo: Property Transfers at Extremely Distressed Prices in Cuyahoga County, 2005-2008." Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, 2008. This report examines the trends of extremely distressed properties in Cuyahoga County between 2005- 2008 after being sold out of REO.

Dewar, Margaret and Kris Wernstedt. "Challenges in Reusing Vacant, Abandoned,and Contaminated Urban Properties." Land Lines. April 2009. 2-7. This article explores the limitations, challenges, and potential for non-profit and community developers to successfully reuse vacant, abandoned, and contaminated land.