Gap In Housing Recovery Goes Along With Blight Levels

Home sale prices in Cleveland are rebounding, but there’s a disparity between the recovery on the city’s west side compared to the east side. 

Before the great recession, there wasn’t much difference in median home prices between the east and west sides of Cleveland. In 2005, the median west side price was $89,000, on the east side it was $80,000. Today, the median price on the west side is $42,000 higher than on the east side.

Frank Ford of the Western Reserve Land Conservancy’s Thriving Communities Institute presented those numbers to Cuyahoga County Council’s community development committee this week. The key difference, said Ford, is the concentration of residential properties on the city’s east side that need demolishing.

“It’s worth noting that the African American communities in Cuyahoga are suffering a disproportionate impact from the blight," said Ford.

In 2015, Ford’s group conducted a survey of all houses in Cleveland and there are about 5,000 vacant homes in need of demolition left in the city. Of those, three-quarters are in neighborhoods with 80% or greater African American populations. Ford told council the home prices in those parts of the city are likely to increase only after more blighted properties are removed.