Expected Wave Of Blighted Foreclosed Homes Concerns Erie Officials

In Erie, Pennsylvania, the Erie Times News reports:

• As the economy tightens throughout the nation -- and Erie County -- foreclosure proceedings are on the rise, and local officials fear more homeowners might be inclined to skip town and let the city to take care of their properties. In the past six years, the city has listed 220 properties and vacant lots as blighted, with properties going off the list and more coming on from time to time. Officials fear the list could soon grow. "We're looking at a wave of these coming into the area soon," said Kim Green, the city's economic and community development director, at a recent committee meeting on blighted properties.

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• The problem with most of the blight in the city isn't the grade of the decay or the amount of it, officials said. More problematic, they said, are the hurdles the city must overcome to get control of properties and correct the blight.

For more, see Bracing for blight (As foreclosures rise, city worries about more dilapidated properties).

Go here for other posts on vacant homes leaving its mark on neighborhoods. neighborhood destruction from foreclosures I