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4/22/2011
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In twist, home equity loans rise And borrowers seemingly are more prudent, unlike past frivolity By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com
This is housing-related news some might not expect. Even though property values remain depressed and people’s equity in their homes is lower in many cases than it was a few years back,
numerous financial institutions are seeing big gains in their home equity lending. The dollar volume of Charter One Bank’s home equity loans and lines in Northeast Ohio shot up 229% in 2010 from 2009 levels, which were up 35% from 2008. “It’s grown at a pace unlike we’ve
seen for years,” said Randy Corbin, Charter One senior vice president and retail banking director for Ohio. At KeyBank, home equity lines of credit — which carry variable rates — have dropped in Northeast Ohio, but home equity loans are up dramatically, said Cindy Balser, senior vice president and senior product
manager. New dollars deployed in those home equity loans — which carry fixed rates — climbed 400% in 2010 over 2009, and the upward trend continues this year. Volume was up 190% in this year’s first quarter over the year-ago period. And after a decrease in home equity loans and lines during the 12 months that ended in March 2009, Eaton Family Credit Union recorded
INSIDE Metro goes off campus The county-subsidized health system is continuing an initiative it started last summer to bulk up its outpatient operations at community centers across the city of Cleveland and its suburbs. Read Tim Magaw’s story on Page 8.
See EQUITY Page 19
After buying AmTrust, NYCB adds local staff
CLEANUP th ON WEST 25 — AND STAT!
Since deal in late 2009, bank focuses on stability
Community leaders strategizing on how to revitalize corridor between zoo, market
By MICHELLE PARK mpark@crain.com
By JAY MILLER jmiller@crain.com
It’s been nearly a year and a half since New York Community Bank began operating in Northeast Ohio where AmTrust Bank once did, and the company has added to its staff and business operations here just as executives said it would. Westbury, N.Y.-based NYCB acquired the failed AmTrust Bank in December 2009 in a deal arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It assumed $8.2 billion in deposits and 66 branches in three states and operates here as Ohio Savings Bank. Though not typically what the company does after an acquisition, the thrift has brought certain operations to Northeast Ohio. A call center with nearly 100 employees in suburban Brooklyn has become NYCB’s centralized retail banking call center, and NYCB also is in the process of moving some disaster recovery services to Cleveland, said Joseph R. Ficalora, president and CEO of New York Community Bancorp, NYCB’s holding company. As a result, one of two disaster recovery sites in New York will close. “These are things that we’re doing in Ohio that we weren’t doing before,”
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eople are beginning to pay attention to a tattered stretch of one of the West Side’s main streets. A group of employers and community leaders have begun meeting to plot a strategy for improving the look of a threemile stretch of West 25th Street in Cleveland and linking a group of island neighborhoods into a cohesive residential and employment district. The hope is to spark redevelopment of the neighborhood comparable to what is occurring in the nearby Detroit-Shoreway neighborhood and in the Midtown area east of downtown. Spurring this community effort is the growth of two large employers — MetroHealth Medical Center and L.J. Minor Co. — in the middle of the corridor; coming changes in traffic flow; and an expected increase in tourist traffic through the corridor with the opening of the new African Elephant Crossing exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and the development of the Cuyahoga Valley scenic byway. The segment of West 25th that is the topic of discussion runs from Ohio City and the See CLEANUP Page 7 JASON MILLER PHOTOS
Community leaders hope to spark growth along the West 25th Street corridor, similar to that in the Detroit-Shoreway and Midtown areas.
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BUSINESS TRAVEL Studies predict an uptick for 2011, but previous cutbacks spared area companies ■ Page 15 PLUS: FAMILIES TAG ALONG ■ FLYING IN STYLE ■ & MORE
Entire contents © 2011 by Crain Communications Inc. Vol. 32, No. 17