March 23, 2007 _Foreclosures Force Suburbs to Fight Blight - New York Times_ (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23vacant.html?pagewanted=all) Highlights from the above link: In a sign of the spreading mortgage foreclosures, cities, are spending millions of dollars to maintain vacant houses as they try to contain blight and real-estate panic. Officials are installing alarms, fixing broken windows and mowing lawns at the vacant houses in hopes of preventing a snowball effect. Suburbs too have had jumps in foreclosures and are also working to stem the damage. Several towns are forcing titleholders to fix up empty houses, or repay the government for doing it. One city has hired three new building inspectors, bringing the total to nine, to deal with troubled properties and is getting a $1 million loan from the county to cover the costs of rehabilitation, demolition and lawn care at the foreclosed houses. (When the properties are sold, such direct maintenance costs will be recovered through tax assessments.)
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