
Cleveland City hugs Lake Erie. It is located in Cuyahoga County of Ohio State, USA. Innumerable Cleveland foreclosures for sale have reached staggering proportions. Looking at the immediate past it appears that Cleveland foreclosures for sale started long before the housing crisis burst across the country. As such the other states and cities that are fast being engulfed by foreclosures are watching with trepidation at the damage done by Cleveland foreclosures for sale. Also they are looking up to Cleveland to find solutions to the problem as the city has been grappling with the problem of Cleveland foreclosures for sale for quite some time.
Cleveland foreclosures for sale are not only affecting the lenders and borrowers but also the entire community. Cleveland foreclosures for sale are lying vacant causing vandals and drug peddlers to take over. This increases the crime rate of the locality and decreases the value of neighbouring houses. Cleveland foreclosures for sale are also damaging the real estate market as the prices are being depressed. This in turn is causing hordes of speculators to rush in from outside the state and make bulk purchases of Cleveland foreclosures for sale. This sort of activity might trigger another similar crisis as once more flippers are taking advantage of the situation.
In the last two years there have been about 10,000 foreclosures in Cleveland. It is only recently that in the foreclosure race states like California, Nevada and Florida have taken over. Since the shutting down of steel mills Cleveland has been declining. With no jobs to hold the economy people started to move out for greener pastures; very few moved in. Since 1960 Cleveland has lost nearly half its population. Its rate of poverty is one of the highest in USA. But the past ruin is nothing compared to what the housing crisis is doing to Cleveland today. There is hardly any accurate count of the number of vacant houses. Roughly today the vacancy rate is 1:13. Some say the number is 10,000 while county officials count it to be about 15,000.
The future is bleak as unemployment has touched 8.8%. With a large number of borrowers having gone underwater many are just walking away leaving behind skeletal structures. Houses are being picked up for the price of a flat screen television set. One train conductor, Luis Jimenez, living in California bought a house on the Internet for $4,000. When he arrived at the site he found that after lying vacant for two years the city has ordered its demolition. Jimenez would have to foot the bill.