Transforming Foreclosed Properties into Community Assets

On May 2, 2008, the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University, with support from the Ford Foundation, convened leading housing researchers, policymakers, lenders, and non-profit housing organizations to discuss how best to leverage public and private resources to put foreclosed properties to productive reuse that will help stabilize neighborhoods. In this report, we review the main topics discussed at the May 2 Roundtable and report the insights of the group convened concerning problems in the market for foreclosed properties, the opportunities for interventions designed to ensure that foreclosed properties are productively reused, and a near term agenda for further research to aid implementation of these efforts in communities across the country. Supplemental research by the Furman Center staff provides additional context and information about these topics.