Foreclosure Rate Prepares Pittsburgh to Combat Deterioration

A recently enacted law provides a new mechanism to combat deterioration in the city of Pittsburgh and in Pennsylvania counties in general. With this new law, officials can now impose a $250 fee on foreclosure sales, a fee that will fund a demolition and rehabilitation initiative aimed at addressing the problem of abandoned and severely deteriorated properties.

Jim Brewster, a Democratic senator from Monroeville and the main sponsor of this law, told news outlets that “deteriorated or abandoned properties decrease local property values and weaken the tax base, so this legislation will rejuvenate communities and reduce property taxes by bolstering property values.”

It should be noted that these problems are not new, as Pennsylvania has maintained a Statewide Blight Task Force since 2006. However, the state has regulations for building codes but lacks a standardized property maintenance code. Instead, municipalities, including the city of Pittsburgh, decide whether to implement a code and what it should entail.

The city of Erie, for example, introduced a blight fee in January, charging property owners $300 every two years, as local officials are concerned that blight, which reduces the value of nearby properties, could lead to disinvestment, increasing the financial burden on government resources to clean up hazardous areas.

Renovating and selling deteriorated properties and establishing land banks to purchase them has been another strategy to address the problem of decaying buildings in Pennsylvania cities. Therefore, the House of Representatives has passed a bill to expand their use, but securing investments to support the banks’ efforts is not always easy, nor is finding buyers.

Governor Josh Shapiro on Monday signed Senator Brewster’s bill, along with nine other bills that reached his desk, after it was passed by the House of Representatives by 109 votes in favor and 93 against, a vote in which almost all Republicans, except eight, opposed it.

Available Foreclosures:

Pittsburgh: 24 houses available

Erie: 15 houses available.

By Elias DaSilva | October 16, 2024.