Residential Foreclosures in the City of Buffalo, 1990-2000 - Federal ...

Table 3
Number and Rate of Foreclosures by Community, 1990 and 2000
Buffalo’s communities can be broken down into three categories according to
their foreclosure rates in 2000. The North East and East Delavan communities had
relatively high foreclosure rates, with foreclosures occurring at about twice the average
city rate. The Ellicott-Masten and North Buffalo-Elmwood communities were at the other
end of the spectrum, with foreclosures occurring at about half the city rate. The remaining
four communities had foreclosure rates similar to the city average. The two communities
with high foreclosure rates had a high percentage of minority residents in 2000,
experienced a significant increase in their minority population from 1990 to 2000, and are
moderate to lower middle income. Notably, the two communities with low foreclosure
rates possess quite different socioeconomic characteristics: the North Buffalo-Elmwood
community is predominately white and middle income while the Ellicott-Masten
community is predominately minority and low income. The relationship between
foreclosures and minority status and income is explored in the next chapter.
As one could expect, communities that demonstrate foreclosure clustering in Map
3 tend to have high foreclosure rates. An exception is West Side-Central, where the
relatively high-density neighborhoods cause foreclosures to appear to be more
concentrated than in other neighborhoods. Additionally, the overall rate is buffered by a
20
Percent
Change,
Foreclosure
Rate (Percent),
2000 (2)
Foreclosures, Foreclosures,
Community
1990 2000 1990-2000
North East 39 145 271 1.03
East Delavan 51 176 245 0.96
East Side 24 89 270 0.56
Riverside 11 55 400 0.49
South Buffalo-River 16 95 493 0.48
West Side-Central 39 103 164 0.47
Ellicott-Masten 10 53 430 0.32
North Buffalo-Elmwood 20 62 210 0.22
Buffalo total 210 778 (1) 270 0.53
Sources: Buffalo Law Journal ; Housing Council, 2000;
Kiley, Kotelchuck, and Nieto Gomez, 1999.
(1) The total represents 804 foreclosures reported in the Buffalo Law Journal
less 26 that we eliminated due to inaccurate addresses or geocoding problems.
(2) The foreclosure rate is foreclosures per housing unit.