Selling Tax-Reverted Land: Lessons from Cleveland and Detroit: New This Spring Westchester

Abstract

Property abandonment is widespread in many northeastern and midwestern cities. Some cities succeed better than others at moving abandoned properties to new uses. Comparing Detroit and Cleveland, where indicators of demand for land look similar, reveals that Clevelanďs land bank has been an effective approach to selling tax-reverted land for reuse, while Detroit's method of land disposition has been less successful. Cleveland integrates its approach into the mayor's agenda for housing development and supports redevelopment with many complementary efforts. Clevelanďs land bank conveys land with clear title, has an accurate property inventory, “banks” property, and sells for predictable, low prices.