Vacant properties are concentrated in black areas of Chicago

Vacant, lender-owned foreclosed properties in Chicago are concentrated in African-American communities, where they go unsold longer and incur greater losses to the lender than such properties in white communities, according to a report by the Woodstock Institute. Sixty percent of such properties from 2007 and the first half of 2008 were in black communities, and the properties took 25% longer to be absorbed into the market than such properties in predominantly white areas, the report found. When the properties were sold, the average loss per property to the lender was 35% in black communities. That compared with an average loss of 17% in white communities. The longer a property remains vacant, the longer the community is exposed to the negative effects of vacant properties, including declining property values of surrounding homes and increases in crime, according to the institute.