Nothing Down, $0 a Month, Hammer Required

The New York Times has an interesting article about East Coast programs that take state-owned historical properties and lease them to willing renovators who show they can plan and execute: "WHY would some people willingly spend decades — and hundreds of thousands of dollars — renovating houses they will never own? For a small but growing number of so-called resident curators living in old and cherished state-owned houses up and down the East Coast, the answers include the pleasure of bringing an abandoned landmark back to life, freedom from mortgage payments and the chance to live in the kind of home that would otherwise be out of reach."

Maybe Youngstown could, in addition to demolitions, find some money to buy back historic homes from absentee owners, then find families to renovate them in exchange for living there. One of the biggest threats to our historic legacy are vacant homes. Despite their affordable price in the area, there are many families who have money either to buy a home or renovate it, but not both.