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Foreclosure Crisis Hits Outer Ring Suburbs

The first quarter of 2008 is the first time the United Way's First Call for Help foreclosure hotline has gotten more calls from troubled homeowners in Cuyahoga County's suburbs than the city of Cleveland. Director Steven Wertheim compared the number of calls from the first three months of this year to the same time last year.

Steve Wertheim:In the city, the growth was only about two percent and in the suburbs though, we saw a growth of 23 percent. Frankly, the outer ring suburbs were growing at a faster pace than the first ring suburbs were.

This is no surprise to housing counselors like Neighborhood Housing Services's Lou Tisler.

Lou Tisler: We are seeing many more people from the outer rings giving us a call because they've extinguished the resources (like credit cards and IRAs) that they have available to them.

This worries local Mayors like Parma Heights' Martin Zanotti who also heads the county's Mayors and City Managers Association.

Martin Zanotti: We're starting to see now where cities are not forecasting increases in their property taxes for inflation because the foreclosures are just having a devasting impact on property values.

He worries the same cycle of rising foreclosures and depressed tax revenues that's hurt Cleveland and the inner suburbs is heading to the outer ring next. Mhari Saito, 90.3.