"Foreclosure mess deepens, widens across Central Ohio" Business First of Columbus

Link: Foreclosure mess deepens, widens across Central Ohio
Kevin Kemper
Business First of Columbus
September 14, 2007

...Statistics covering the eight-county Central Ohio area show the three ZIP codes in Linden have some of the highest foreclosure levels since 2005 - roughly the start of the area's housing slowdown.

And Linden is far from alone. An arc running along the south side of Columbus from the Hilltop area to the edge of Reynoldsburg also has been blotted by foreclosures.

Situation is 'bleak'

Nearly 25,000 houses and condos have gone into foreclosure in the past 30 months in Delaware, Fairfield, Franklin, Madison, Morrow, Licking, Pickaway and Union counties, according to data compiled by RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosed properties...

"Partnership plans to develop Columbus infill housing" Columbus Business First

There are a number of individual investors out there buying, rehabing and then flipping houses all over Columbus in a variety of urban neighborhoods. Within that group of investors are many separate strategies that people are employing to turn a profit. The following article talks about one such strategy that is working on a bit larger scale which will help contribute to the revitalization of a particular neighborhood:

Link: Partnership plans to develop Columbus infill housing
Tony Goins
Business First
October 21st, 2005

...Ten of the lots are in the Hilltop neighborhood and the other is on the east side, Reynolds said. The price RPM will pay the city for the parcels hasn't been negotiated, he said.

Columbus owns dozens of lots that have been foreclosed or abandoned, but private developers seldom take a chance on them, Reynolds said...

This article got me thinking: What if there were some sort of coalition that gathered up individual investors that would target a specific neighborhood and work with the neighborhood organizations in problem areas with abandoned and foreclosed homes? Everyone benefits.

The investors could work their projects separately but by having a group of homes rehabbed in one area at the same time there would be benefit to all involved due to the fact that multiple homes would see an increase in value at the same time.

Just think about it. Imagine there was another investor doing what the company in the article was doing, in the same neighborhood, at the same time. Everyone still manages and controls there own profit, but the collaboration of targeting a specific neighborhood creates a synergistic effect rather than a sporadic and random one.

I'm aware of what it means to work with neighborhood organizations and the challenges that are sometimes presented, but a good faith effort should be put forward. I'm also not wearing rose colored glasses to make the world a perfect place where separate investors will all play in the same sandbox nicely together...but you won't know until you try.

I would call this approach collaborative targeted parallel community reinvestment...just because I like to come up with fancy names.

Hmmm... Just another "deep thought" for the day. Somebody steal it and go implement it :)