Cleveland Real Estate News

 I found this article in The Washington Independent, which I admit I have never read before.  But was impressed enough that the article (written by Mary Kane) gives the back story in a clear and fairly accurate way, along with the update on the lawsuit’s progress.

I wrote about the lawsuit efforts in this December ’08 post, but here is the issue in a nutshell. Housing has been depreciating, we all know that. The average depreciation here in the Cleveland area has been about 25% lower than 2005 sale prices.  Banks take over homes and in many cases do fix them up a bit before selling them. Several lenders have taken a different road.  They take over the properties and then sell them for pennies of the last sale price. If you have six foreclosure sales (REO’s) on your block in the last six months, those bank sales affect the value of your home.  This caused NPI and the Cleveland Housing Network to go after a few of these REO offenders. And if the Washington Independent article is to be believed, the lawsuit is actually making progress; this was not expected; the lawsuit was like David against Goliath. 

So check out the above link, because if this case sets a precedence with a ‘win,’ it could change how bank owned properties are allowed to be sold and at what price.  Peace Out – 3C