Rethinking Revitalization: A Data Driven Approach to Addressing the Foreclosure Crisis

In response to the foreclosure crisis and resulting vacant property problem, communities must be strategic in allocation of resources and employ a variety of intervention strategies in or to be effective.    In partnership with the Urban Institute and the Center for Housing Policy, researchers at National LISC developed a data-driven methodology to help inform neighborhood stabilization strategies.  At a regional scale this analysis is highly effective in showing areas of concern, recovery and prioritization.  However, within cities hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis a finer grain of analysis is required.  Twin Cities researchers working on a comprehensive vacant properties database built upon this methodology and refined the indices using local data sources to examine market conditions at the block level.  After walking through the Housing Marking Index, we will move on to planned improvements and expansion of this work and preview a Well-being and Opportunity Index now under construction.  The presentation will conclude with a discussion of how these and other indices can be utilized by the community and replicated nationally.