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Quicken Loans Founder: Company Not To Blame For Detroit Blight

DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert says the number of foreclosures on the company's loans for Detroit homes reflects the large volume of investments made in the city.

A part of a project examining the effect of foreclosures on the city, the Detroit News found that Quicken Loans had the fifth-highest number of mortgages that ended in foreclosure in Detroit over the last decade -- and half of those properties are now blighted.

Gilbert, a major downtown property holder, told the newspaper the Detroit-based online mortgage lender had little role in the eventual conditions of homes. He further went on to say that the number of foreclosures on the company's loans merely reflects the firm's investments in the city.

[Report Details How Subprime Lending, Foreclosures Hurt Detroit]

"It's very hard to make any causation between these loans and the fact that (homeowners) walked away or could not afford the payments and some eventually became blighted," he said.

Gilbert says there's "not enough data" to know if the city's 65,000 bank foreclosures over the past 10 years created blight. He says high property taxes were a big part of the problem.

TM and © Copyright 2015 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

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