Reports and Studies

The Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative is a collaborative effort between the City of Syracuse, local and national non-profit organizations, and private sector leaders. This partnership was created in response to an urgent challenge issued by Congressman James Walsh (R-Syracuse) in the summer of 1999 -- a challenge to revitalize distressed neighborhoods in Syracuse and reclaim those of the city's 1,031 vacant buildings that are having the greatest blighting impact on these neighborhoods. The Initiative is a city-wide effort, but is focused on revitalizing seven central-city neighborhoods that have suffered a wave of disinvestment and bear much of the burden of the city's abandoned housing stock.




Viable strategies to address the problem of neighborhood decline in Syracuse must reflect an understanding of local housing market dynamics. The Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation undertook this market study to help identify the challenges and opportunities that distressed neighborhoods face in today's housing market, and to suggest a course of action that makes sense given current housing market conditions. To accomplish these goals, the study utilized an extensive mix of secondary data sources, as well as primary data generated through a series of interviews with local informants and a survey of over 6,000 households in seven central city neighborhoods that the City of Syracuse has designated as "revitalization areas" for the Neighborhood Initiative.
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To date, various parties have used the term "predatory lending" to describe a wide range of abuses. Regulators, industry and advocates have not agreed on a single definition, but have used the term individually to refer to different practices and loan terms. This paper describes predatory lending as a set of loan terms and practices that falls between appropriate risk-based pricing by subprime lenders and blatant fraud. Thus, all subprime lending is not predatory, but typically relies on risk-based pricing to serve borrowers who cannot obtain credit in the prime market. The higher degree of risk associated with subprime borrowers requires a higher cost for a subprime loan. At the other end of the spectrum, cases of blatant fraud are predatory, but less common and can generally be combated with current criminal statutes. The most difficult cases are those in which loan terms seem out of line with standard prices. In particular, high-cost loans coupled with unscrupulous practices that pressure a borrower into a loan are predatory. The paper sets forth three potential regulatory and legislative solutions that may address the issue of predatory lending. Complete listing and access info »

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By looking beyond the financial characteristics of borrowers, this research brings to light the social factors that influence a borrower's choice of a lender and mortgage product. Previous research has indicated that distinct channels exist that funnel borrowers into lower or higher cost loan products (Apgar, Bendimerad, and Essene 2007). But little is known as to how borrowers seek out or are directed to such channels. A particular concern that this paper hopes to address is why black borrowers disproportionately have higher priced products.

Some research indicates that even when credit worthiness is controlled for, blacks are overrepresented in the subprime sector and in higher-cost products (Bocian, Ernst, and Li 2006). Through in-depth interviews with 32 borrowers, this research (1) highlights how borrowers seek mortgage credit and evaluate their mortgage options, and (2) demonstrates how borrowers make use of their social networks (friends and family) when making their decisions.

The preliminary findings indicate that borrowers' preferences and subsequent demands for mortgage products were shaped by the informal and formal advice they received. Those borrowers who consulted the most diverse sources of information had loans with lower interest rates. Those borrowers who received advice only from family and friends did not fare as well as those who received help from credit counselors. Thus, arguably, their loan outcomes varied not just based on if they consulted others, but especially whom they consulted. When given the right advice, potential homebuyers make better decisions in choosing both a lender and a loan. Complete listing and access info »

This paper explores the use of public schools as tools for community and economic development. As major place-based infrastructure and an integral part of the community fabric, public schools can have a profound impact on the social, economic and physical character of a neighborhood. Addressing public schools, therefore, is a good point of entry for community-based developers to place their work in a comprehensive community-development context. The paper examines ways in which community-based developers can learn from, as well as contribute to, current community-based efforts, particularly in disinvested urban areas, to reinforce the link between public schools and neighborhoods. Furthermore, the paper considers the policy implications of including public schools in comprehensive development strategies, and argues that reinforcing the link between public schools and neighborhoods is not only good education policy, but also good community-development policy and practice. Complete listing and access info »

On April 24, 2003, Neighborhood Reinvestment hosted the fourth national symposium on multifamily excellence, The Vitality of America's Working Neighborhoods: Meeting the Local Challenges to Multifamily Housing, in Chicago, Illinois. Organized by NeighborWorks Multifamily Initiative, this symposium brought together national leaders from across the field with experienced practitioners and local leaders to examine the challenge of creating healthy neighborhoods whild ensuring that all Americans, expecially low-income families, coud afford to live in them.

Studies show that mixed-income communities are more sustainable than communities of concentrated poverty. Therefore, we sought to explore how mixed- income communities perform over time -- and how we could support more of these communities. In collaboration with Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS), Neighborhood Reinvestment is honored to publish the summation of its findings along with Ellen Seidman's synopsis of the symposium where the research was first presented.

Symposium partricipants heard the research and explored this challenge: How can local jurisdictions find and support a balance of affordability, while ensuring the long term value and health of their neighborhoods? If we don't want concentrated poverty, then Americans who are living on low incomes must be able to find homes they can afford in healthy communities. Yet, neighbors often resist "affordable housing," fearing it will "bring crime, harm schools, or reduce property values."

We found many communities throughout the country that successfully balance the ownership and rental challenge by developing public tools that creatively address this issue. Complete listing and access info »

The NeighborWorks Campaign for Home Ownership 2002, in creating a framework for expanding NeighborWorks organizations' work with first-time homeowners, has also had the positive outcome of pooling the collective talent and creativity within the network of those organizations. The Campaign has given dedicated people who are the wellspring of local organizations' talent a chance to come together, share their wisdom and be inspired by their colleagues' ideas.

These Winning Strategies are a natural response to the enthusiasm and collective thought expressed through the Campaign. Documenting these strategies as case studies has been an important piece of the Campaign's work, in part because these written reports can disperse accounts of successful models to distant locales and a range of audiences. The objectives in publishing the Winning Strategies have been:

1. To describe and record in a straightforward way NeighborWorks organizations' innovative approaches to helping families overcome barriers to home ownership;

2. To illustrate how NeighborWorks organizations are implementing the comprehensive approach to home ownership called Full Cycle Lending, itself formalized under the aegis of the Campaign; and

3. To offer NeighborWorks organizations and others interested in home-ownership promotion a way to learn from and perhaps replicate existing work in the field. Complete listing and access info »