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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

McGovern, Stephen J (2006). "Philadelphia's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative: A Case Study of Mayoral Leadership, Bold Planning and Conflict." Housing Policy Debate. 17(3), 529-570. Abstract: "This article examines the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI), Mayor John F. Street's plan to revitalize Philadelphia's distressed neighborhoods by issuing $295 million in bonds to finance the acquisition of property, the demolition of derelict buildings, and the assembling of large tracts of land for housing redevelopment. Despite its resemblance to the discredited urban renewal programs of the past, this plan offered real potential for reducing blight by leveraging substantial private investment at a time when public subsidies for affordable housing and community development have been steadily diminishing. However, NTI did not promote equitable development that might have fostered broader support for an inherently controversial plan. Moreover, Street's initial leadership in proposing this bold initiative was followed by a reluctance to promote NTI aggressively after it was adopted in 2002. The result was a watered‐down effort that achieved some goals but has fallen short of what might have been accomplished."

Bontje, M. (2004). "Facing the challenge of shrinking cities in East Germany: The case of Leipzig." GeoJournal. 61, 13-21. Abstract: "In the early 20th century, the East German city of Leipzig seemed well on its way to become a metropolis of international importance. The city was expected to grow towards over one million inhabitants in 2000. Seventy years later, Leipzig's population has shrunk to less than 500,000 inhabitants instead. The German partition after World War II took away most of its national administrative and economic functions and much of its hinterland. The socialist GDR regime worsened the long-term development perspectives and living circumstances of the city. The German reunification brought new development chances, but like most East German cities, Leipzig's hopes soon became disappointed. The local politicians faced a difficult redevelopment task: apart from the question how to revive the local and regional economy, they also had to deal with a housing vacancy rate of 20%, a huge need for renovation in the older neighbourhoods as well as in the socialist high-rise areas, the negative effects of urban sprawl on the city core, and various environmental pollution problems. After briefly describing the development path of Leipzig until the 1990s, the paper will discuss the current attempts of the city government to give Leipzig a more positive post-industrial future. On the one hand, Leipzig is developing a strategy to 'downsize' the city's built environment and infrastructure to adapt to a probably lastingly smaller population. On the other hand, many growth instruments well known from the international scientific and political debate are tried to put Leipzig back on the (inter)national map. The paper will discuss these development strategies in the light of the international debate on the question 'how to fight the shrinking city', with specific attention for post-socialist cities."

Mendes, Wendy, Kevin Balmer Terra Kaethler, & Amanda Rhoads. (2008). "Using Land Inventories to Plan for Urban Agriculture." Journal of the American Planning Association. 74 (4), 435-450. Abstract: "Problem: Urban agriculture has potential to make cities more socially and ecologically sustainable, but planners have not had effective policy levers to encourage this. Purpose: We aim to learn how to use land inventories to identify city land with the potential for urban agriculture in order to plan for more sustainable communities by answering two questions: Do land inventories enable integration of urban agriculture into planning and policymaking? Do land inventories advance both ecological and social dimensions of local sustainability agendas? Methods: We use case studies of two Pacific Northwest cities (Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia), comparing the municipal land inventories they undertook to identify public lands with potential for urban agriculture. We study how they were initiated and carried out, as well as their respective scopes, scales, and outcomes. Results and conclusions: We find that the Portland inventory both enabled integration of urban agriculture into planning and policymaking and advanced social and ecological sustainability. In Vancouver similar integration was achieved, but the smaller scope of the effort meant it did little for public involvement and social sustainability. Takeaway for practice: Other local governments considering the use of a land inventory should contemplate: (a) using the inventory process itself as a way to increase institutional awareness and political support for urban agriculture; (b) aligning urban agriculture with related sustainability goals; (c) ensuring public involvement by creating participatory mechanisms in the design and implementation of the inventory; (d) drawing on the expertise of institutional partners including universities. Research support: The Centre for Urban Health Initiativ

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Follain, James R., PhD. "A Study of Real Estate Markets in Declining Cities." 1-84. Washington, D.C: Research Institute for Housing America of the Mortgage Bankers Association, 2010. From Executive Summary: "The "Great Recession" of 2007 to 2009 has taken a great toll on housing markets in most cities and metropolitan areas in all parts of the country. Though the pace and extent of the overall economic recovery of these markets is still far from certain, many places will likely resume growth and fully recover within the next decade or so. This is almost certainly not to be the case for all metropolitan areas. In fact, a number of large metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) experienced severe recessions during the latter half of the 20th century and prior to the Great Recession and never fully recovered or took many years to do so. Even among those metro areas with relatively bright long-run prospects for growth, certain submarkets within them may remain well below recent house price peaks for many years to come. What is a declining city? Simply put, a declining city is one in which the people have left, but the houses, apartment buildings, offices and storefronts remain. At the extreme, think of a ghost town from the Old West, a town that lost its reason for being. Are there cities or large metro areas in the United States at risk of disappearing back into the desert (or the swamp) today? Probably not, but there are certainly neighborhoods and submarkets within metro areas that have passed a tipping point, and have little prospect of returning to anything close to their previous peaks. Lastly, another type of declining city may also be emerging - places that grew substantially during the housing boom and are now experiencing unprecedented declines in house prices and increases in foreclosures. The primary goal of this paper is to offer insights on the potential future evolution of real estate markets in cities that are in the midst of a severe and persistent

Adams, D., De Sousa, C. and S. Tiesdell. 2010. "Brownfield Development: A Comparison of North American and British Approaches." Urban Studies 47(1): 75-104. "Over the past 30-40 years, urban change and deindustrialisation in advanced economies have created a legacy of vacant and derelict land that is increasingly seen as a development opportunity rather than planning problem. This paper investigates how the shared challenge of bringing such brownfield sites back into productive use has been interpreted differently in four countries: the US, Canada, Scotland and England. In each case, the particular policy environment has shaped the brownfield debate in distinctive ways, producing a different set of relations between the public and private sectors in brownfield redevelopment. Through this detailed comparison of the North American and British experience, the paper traces the maturity of policy and seeks to discover whether the main differences in understanding and tackling brownfield land can be attributed primarily to physical, cultural or institutional factors."

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

Vey, Jennifer S. 2007. "Restoring Prosperity: The State Role in Revitalizing America's Older Industrial cities." Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program. Summary: "Across the country, cities today are becoming more attractive to certain segments of society. Meanwhile, economic trends-globalization, the demand for educated workers, the increasing role of universities-are providing cities with an unprecedented chance to capitalize upon their economic advantages and regain their competitive edge. Many cities have exploited these assets to their advantage; the moment is ripe for older industrial cities to follow suit. But to do so, these cities need thoughtful and broad-based approaches to foster prosperity. "Restoring Prosperity" aims to mobilize governors and legislative leaders, as well as local constituencies, behind an asset-oriented agenda for reinvigorating the market in the nation's older industrial cities. The report begins with identifications and descriptions of these cities-and the economic, demographic, and policy "drivers" behind their current condition-then makes a case for why the moment is ripe for advancing urban reform, and offers a five-part agenda and organizing plan to achieve it."

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.

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.

NeighborWorks America. "Implementing the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP): Community Stabilization in the Neighborworks Network." 1-84. Washington, D.C.: Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation d/b/a Neighborhworks America, 2010.

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."