“All hands on deck” seems to be a productive strategy in addressing blight including utilizing non-traditional partnerships. We have previously reported on communities working with the National Guard . In a recent report, FOX 54READ MORE
Rental Registry Proves Successful
A recent article in the Dayton Daily News discusses the successes of their rental registry/inspection program. Some of the results include; Rental property violations dropped by more than half, in the past two years. FinesREAD MORE
New York State Cities for Responsible Investment and Strategic Enforcement (Cities RISE) Program
As previously reported, in July 2019 New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced $9 million in grants to address the growing statewide issue of “zombie homes” – vacant or abandoned homes that are notREAD MORE
Dallas Task Force on Safe Communities Report
During the Summer of 2019, following increased gun violence and tragedies that took the lives of children, Mayor Eric Johnson announced the creation of the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities. The Task Force receivedREAD MORE
Virginia Seeks to Increase Fines for Derelict Buildings
On December 18th 2019, Delegate Ibraheem Samirah D – Counties of Fairfax (part) and Loudoun (part) 86th District has introduced HB 150 into the Virginia Legislature. Per the Summary “Allows certain localities to impose aREAD MORE
USA Today Report on “Reverse Mortgages”
“Most issues can be traced back to faulty loan servicing with an often-revolving cast of loan companies” Similar quotes were frequent during the last foreclosure crisis. However this quote comes from a USA Today report onREAD MORE
Enactment of NYS S.5079-A/A.1859-A “Zombie Property Remediation Act of 2019”
On December 18th issued the following press release regarding his signing of the “Zombie Property Remediation Act of 2019” To view the final language, please click here. To view local reporting, please click here. NewREAD MORE
New Path to the American Dream
Property conditions are generally contingent on several factors. Of course occupancy status is the primary factor but there are several others including usage and who resides in the property (i.e. owner occupant vs. rental/tenant). However,READ MORE
NJ S1155 VPRO Legislation Progresses
Following a March 4, 2019 referral to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, S1155 was reported from the Committee and given a 2nd Reading. To view the current text of the proposed bill, please clickREAD MORE
“Zombie Foreclosures” – New Federal Guidelines for “OREO”
On October 22, 2019 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) amended the regulations and issued a final rule, effective December 1, 2019, for “other real estate owned,” activities for national banks andREAD MORE
Strong Stance Against Zombie Foreclosures
In an aggressive approach to “zombie foreclosures, at the request of Alderman James Martuscello, Amsterdam NY Common Council members unanimously voted against removing a property from the tax auction list and accepting a payoff paymentREAD MORE
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta White Paper on VPROs
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta just released a white paper on “VPROs” titled, “Foreclosure Externalities and Vacant Property Registration Ordinances” Not surprisingly the study showed positive outcomes from the implementation of a vacant propertyREAD MORE