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Tax foreclosures in Detroit down nearly 90 percent in two years

Posted at 12:13 PM, Sep 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-19 12:13:50-04

The city of Detroit is seeing major improvement in tax foreclosures of owner-occupied homes over the last couple of years.

According to the city, tax foreclosures dropped to their lowest levels this year since 2008 and are down 88 percent over the last two years.

This year, the city says there were 768 tax foreclosures involving homes occupied by the owner. Two years ago, there were 6,408.

Including vacant abandoned properties, tax foreclosures were down 70 percent from 24,793 two years ago to 6,315 in 2017.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans and Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree made the announcement Tuesday.

"Working as a team we have fought hard to reduce foreclosures throughout Wayne County and have reduced that number by 72 percent in just the last two years," Sabree said. "Of the 43 municipalities within the county, 12 had zero foreclosures this year and 15 others had 10 or less."

The city also gave credit to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who approved legislation that allowed the county to create interest rate reduction programs.

"I'd like to thank everyone who helped spread the word to their neighbors about foreclosure assistance and ways to stay in their homes," Evans said. "Today's numbers are an improvement. I hope we can continue to reduce these numbers even further. We're all better off with people in their homes, strengthening our neighborhoods and anchoring our communities."

Duggan said the drop in foreclosures is another sign of progress being made in Detroit.

"We are seeing real progress in areas that impact all of our neighborhoods," Duggan added. "There are still more foreclosures than we want, but we never would have made this level of progress without the hard work of Treasurer Sabree's office and the dozens of volunteers who organized to help these families stay in their homes."