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Foreclosure Crisis Plagues Local Communities

POSTED: 6:53 pm EDT September 10, 2007
UPDATED: 7:23 am EDT September 11, 2007

Just three days ago, Mortgage Bankers Association announced that Ohio has twice the national average of homeowners who are 90 days past due on their mortgages or are in foreclosure.

Maple Heights is just one local neighborhood among many where every homeowner is suffering, no matter how up-to-date they are on their payments.

Charles Eggleston pays his mortgage every month, maintains his home and even made improvements.

He's already dropped his price from $109,000 to $99,000 and still can't find a buyer.

Times have changed for the neighborhood where he's spent the last two decades.

Eggleston said, "I'm a child of the 80s and back in the day, Maple Heights was something to look up to."

But Maple Heights now finds itself in the eye of the foreclosure storm. More than 100 homes have gone into foreclosure in just three months, and it's just the beginning.

The problem is not a surprise to Maple Heights Mayor Michael Ciaravino, who said, "We've warned about this for three to four years. Someone should have been able to realize. It should have been indicative of greater underlying problems."

Foreclosure is a double-whammy for Maple Heights. The tax base is not only eroding, at the same time, it is forced to spend money maintaining those properties to prevent blight.

To save money, the city has closed its swimming pools, job vacancies in fire and police departments aren't filled and the city is even renting out the top floor of City Hall just to make some extra money.

"How ironic when they were first able to get the American dream and buy their own first home, it turns out they're now being punished for the rest of their lives because the banking, regulatory rules they thought were in place, were not there," said Ciaravino.

The same thing is happening in middle class suburbs all across northeast Ohio.

The year 2005 was a banner year for subprime mortgages, and many homeowners refinanced or took out variable loans.

Now, most of those adjustable rate mortgages are scheduled to reset.

"Many residents told oh, don't worry, you'll be able to refinance. Well guess what they have no ability to refinance, because the lending industry is not offering any refinancing packages. So they're stuck not only paying higher rates, but being forced out of their homes," said Ciaravino.

As desperate homeowners find themselves unable to hang onto their homes, their homes are glutting the market, leaving homeowners like Eggleston a casualty of foreclosure.

"As usually, it's always the little person left holding the bag. I'm just one of many, but you know hopefully things take a turn," Eggleston said.



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