When the headline on the story reads, “America’s New Foreclosure Capitals,” it’s safe to say most people hope the city where they live isn’t on it.
Sorry to disappoint, Clevelanders. (What, you thought being one of the old foreclosure capitals would disqualify us from being a new foreclosure capital?)
Forbes.com worked with RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based foreclosure listing site, to come up with a list of 20 places where the foreclosure situation has gotten worse since May 2011.
“All of the 20 metro areas that made this list have 20 months or more worth of foreclosure inventory; are witnessing 20% increases or higher in foreclosure activity; clocked May foreclosure rates that were above the national average; and have housing markets for which 10% or more of all home sales are distressed,” the website reports.
In Ohio, four metro areas are seeing marked upticks in foreclosure activity: Canton, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton.
“In Dayton, new filings have increased 92% and represent a 30-month inventory,” according to Forbes.com. “These properties, which constituted 21% of May’s home sales, typically fetch 36% less than comparable non-distressed homes. In Cleveland, new filings increased 42% from May 2011 through May 2012, representing a 31-month inventory.”
Forbes.com adds that 1 of every 421 homes in the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor MSA is in foreclosure.
Since a $25 billion foreclosure settlement was reached earlier this year, Forbes.com says, “filings have finally begun to move through the system again in the most delayed areas, creating a new wave of foreclosures. So while foreclosures in hard-hit states where the process is less rigorous — like California, Nevada, and Arizona — have actually been decreasing, judicial states like Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania are facing an onslaught of new filings.”
This and that
The best defense …: DefenseWorld.net reports that Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors in Akron has been awarded a $27 million contract for 22 sets of Vertical Launch Anti-Submarine Rocket MK54 all-up-round components.
The contract contains options, which, if exercised, will bring the total cumulative value of the contract to $28.9 million.
About three-quarters of the work will be performed in Akron, the website reports.
A toast is in order: “Beer-loving foodies” are at the heart of a renaissance in Cleveland, according to no less an authority on the subject than Draft Magazine.
The magazine’s profile portrays Cleveland as an incredible beer town. Which it pretty much is.
Good results: Jehovah’s Witnesses, whose religious beliefs don’t allow for blood transfusions, seem to do as well or better than other patients after heart surgery, new research from Cleveland suggests.
“Doctors sometimes give heart patients a transfusion of red blood cells if tests show they have low levels of hemoglobin or hematocrit after the procedure to prevent severe anemia, despite some transfusion-related risks,” Reuters reports. “Because Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have that option, surgeons typically take extra pre-procedure precautions — such as giving patients B vitamins and iron — to ensure their red blood cell counts don’t get too low during surgery.”
Those precautions seem to be working.
“The current management strategy… does not appear to place patients at increased risk, and actually some of the complications are fewer,” Dr. Colleen Koch, who worked on the study at the Cleveland Clinic, tells Reuters.
We take umbrage: There’s an offbeat piece of Cleveland history in this New York Times obituary of Julian Goodman, a former president of NBC News.
Mr. Goodman, 90, died Monday of kidney failure.
The Times notes that Mr. Goodman produced the second Nixon-Kennedy debate in 1960 in Washington, in an NBC studio.
“He rejected Cleveland, the initial choice, saying he could not find a suitable location there,” according to the obit. “Cleveland reacted with umbrage, and Mr. Goodman rarely set foot in the city again.”
Just for fun: By all means check out this compilation of photos of 69 current political figures from their high school days.
You will no doubt enjoy the shoulder-length hair on U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, the Cincinnati Republican who’s a leading contender to be Mitt Romney’s running mate.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, sports some fine loafers and is caught mid-snack in the photo.
House Speaker John Boehner, another Ohioan, looks like he’s been caught doing something wrong. (And he’s not remotely tan.)