There are neighborhoods around the country as bad as anything in Cleveland. Cleveland is a bellwether. It’s where other cities are heading because of the economic downturn.

—Dan Immergluck, a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and an associate professor in the city and regional planning program at Georgia Tech

This crisis was triggered by foreclosures, and a lot of those were in a very small number of areas

—William Lucy, University of Virginia

The industry publication, Inside Mortgage Finance, shows that subprime lending grew from approximately $35 billion in 1994 to $665 billion in 2005. We now have a flood of credit, much of which is structured to the detriment of the borrower and to the benefit of the credit arrangers. This flood of credit is distorting housing markets and causing negative spillovers from directly impacted borrowers onto neighbors and communities.

…

Property appreciation that is built upon financing gimmicks and short-term teaser rates is not real, sustainable appreciation and, in the long run, discourages the smooth functioning of housing markets and neighborhood economies.

—Dan Immergluck testifying before congress, 21 March 2007