Vacant Properties Persist in Cuyahoga County—and Not Just in Cleveland

"Houses in Cuyahoga County are selling faster than they have in a decade. But even now, years after the housing crisis subsided, abandoned homes dot every city," reports Mary Kilpatrick.

"The scourge of vacancies is worst in the inner ring, especially on the east side. Cleveland Heights had 709 vacant homes in the last quarter of 2014. Compared to Lakewood, which has 366. Both cities, and cities from Parma to Orange, are pushing to raze, remodel or flat-out camouflage vacancies, to keep nearby home sale prices up and criminals away."

According to data from the U.S. Postal Service, analyzed by the Northeast Ohio Community and Neighborhood Data for Organizing and the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, the number of vacant homes in Cuyahoga County, 22,000, is equivalent to the number of vacant homes in the county in 2010. One surprising detail of the statistics: "8,800 of the vacant homes are outside Cleveland and East Cleveland, in the same suburbs where homes can top $1 million."

The article also includes details about the efforts of Cuyahoga County and its cities are doing to address the problem.