Harry L. Margulis

Spatial Aspects of Housing Abandonment in the 1990s: The Cleveland Experience

Abstract Housing abandonment continues to ravage US cities, despite a recent waning of scholarly interest in this topic. Our paper revisits this topic by examining recent patterns of housing abandonment in a prototypical rust belt city, Cleveland. We assess the evolving pattern of abandoned units between 1980 and 1990 and its ecological (housing and population) correlates. The results suggest that housing abandonment in Cleveland has spread in a contagious fashion beyond a dilapidated core. A diversity of neighbourhood types—owner occupied moderate income, Asian occupied, low ‐income black, and newly arrived high unemployment —have recently been plagued by this phenomenon. We call for more study on this important topic and offer preliminary policy recommendations.

Suburban Housing Resale Prices and Housing Market Restructuring

This study shows that in the suburban rings surrounding Cleveland, Ohio average resale prices are sustained through capitalization of quality–price preferences for housing and school quality. Average housing resale prices are highest where local fiscal capacity is built upon a strong residential–nonresidential property tax base and where the total valuation resulting is capitalized into housing stock prices. High total valuation per pupil enables school districts to maintain satisfactory per pupil expenditures that contribute to the sustainability of resale prices. Nonetheless, regional restructuring, population growth, access to superior housing, open space and other amenities in the peripheral, inner– and outer–edge suburban rings are redirecting investment away from the contiguous ring suburbs where the levying of high effective millages is causing total valuations per pupil to fall. Diminishing school district quality and shrinking tax bases in the contiguous suburbs are harbingers of suburban distress and housing disinvestment.

Homebuyer choices and search behaviour in a distressed urban setting

Abstract Buyers purchase homes in Cleveland, Ohio, because visible neighbourhood qualities, structural attributes and neighbourhood amenities are appealing. How they perceive their housing and their neighbourhoods tends to vary with income, education, previous tenure and their type of employment. Their perceptions are confounded, however, by their race, the presence of school age children, their previous place of residence, work location and time expected to reside in the house. Neighbourhood familiarity and locational convenience are also key components in the homebuyers decision process. Moreover, few higher income homebuyers anticipate remaining in their homes for more than four years. Because their work orientation is outside the downtown, future housing purchases may similarly occur outside the city. To the extent that there is a slackening in the purchasing of housing units in the central city by higher income households, housing market and neighbourhood stability are likely to deteriorate.

NEIGHBORHOOD AGING AND HOUSING DETERIORATION PREDICTING ELDERLY OWNER HOUSING DISTRESS IN CLEVELAND AND ITS SUBURBS

This study examines elderly owned housing in the City of Cleveland and its suburbs to determine how the process of cumulative inertia is influencing the condition of their housing. Data derived from the 1987 Cuyahoga County Assessors Mass Residential Appraisal File and Senior Citizen Homestead Exemption Master File are used in discriminant analyses to test several statistical models. The results show that in census tracts where the average percentages of elderly persons and elderly homeowners are greater than that of the county, elderly owned properties are experiencing declining appraised property values and many of them are falling into disrepair. In total, some 35,881 elderly owned structures in Cleveland and 2,114 in the suburbs are at risk because these units have exterior conditions that are rated as poor to fair in condition.

Asian Villages: Downtown Sanctuaries, Immigrant Asian Reception Areas, and Festival Marketplaces

Field research in fifteen cities in the United States and Canada reveals that planning departments working with nonprofit local development corporations (LDCs) and for-profit developers are rejuvenating central city East Asian villages. LDCs are instrumental in formulating strategic plans and negotiating community benefits. Implementation includes special district designation, revising land use and zoning codes to permit low-density mixed residential-commercial development, developing design and streetscape standards, and increasing community access, capacity, and resources. Where villages serve as immigrant reception areas or sanctuaries for elderly non-English-speaking Asians, providing community social services and health programs, preserving and expanding low-and moderate-income affordable housing, creating jobs, and encouraging business diversification are important priorities.

NEIGHBORHOOD PERCEPTION AND HOUSING MAINTENANCE IN OLDER SUBURBAN COMMUNITIES

Local governments spend considerable time building neighborhood confidence by improving the visual qualities of the external environment. It is assumed that improved neighborhood appearance would trigger property reinvestment and real estate market stability or recovery. This study shows that in older suburban communitieswith the exception of government service delivery-knowledge of suburban location, housing tenure, length of residence, and housing improvements do not enable us to predict how residents perceive their neighborhood environments. While some things may be bothersome, they have not reached a threshold sufficient to produce awareness or to precipitate action. Under these circumstances, government efforts to maintain service levels or upgrade properties remain unperceived and they will not produce the desired multiplier effects.