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News Briefs
St. Louis region
New study tracks St. Louis’ position in foreclosure crisis
A report compiled by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments shows that the St. Louis region is weathering the foreclosure crisis about as well as can be expected.
In a ranking that compares 35 peer cities’ percentages of homes repossessed due to foreclosure, St. Louis is 16th. In 2007 in St. Louis, 15,000 housing units or 1.28 percent of the total were foreclosed; the figure in Detroit, the worst hit community, is 4.92 percent, and in Cleveland, the second worst affected community, it’s 2.97 percent. Like St. Louis, Detroit and Cleveland are struggling post-industrial cities trying to reinvent themselves. Miami, San Diego and Phoenix also rank in the top ten. These boom cities’ high foreclosure rates can be explained by housing-market bubbles and a high number of speculators in those markets, the report argues.
The study also showed that St. Louis is in the middle of the pack — 17th out of 35 — in the rate of house-price appreciation; from 2002 to 2007, the average price of a local house rose 31.71 percent.
St. Louis city
City opens polls early for voting
The polls in the city of St. Louis are open — at least to those voters who plan to vote early with absentee ballots in the
Aug. 5 primary, either by visiting the Election Board in person or by requesting a postal ballot. The law allows residents to vote absentee without giving a reason.
The Election Board is based at 300 N. Tucker Blvd.
A number of candidates for citywide and statewide offices, including governor and attorney general, are on the ballot.
There will be also be a Metropolitan Sewer District special bond issue on the ballot.
Voters in St. Louis County do not have the same flexibility in early voting but can request a postal ballot or visit the Board of Election Commissioners, 12 Sunnen Drive, on Saturdays preceding the election — July 12, 19 and 26, and Aug. 2 between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. — to cast their ballots.
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