Tom Barrack speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21, 2016.

One of President Donald Trump's closest friends and confidants took advantage of the Great Recession to build an unprecedented real estate business that makes him tantamount to a modern-day slumlord buying up homes, bumping up rents and allowing the properties to fall into disrepair. Southern California billionaire Thomas J. Barrack is the mastermind behind the […]

Home foreclosure filings in Columbus, other Ohio metro areas far below pre-recession levels

Foreclosure filings – described as default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions – in the first quarter of this year were down 45 percent in the Columbus area compared with the average over the seven quarters that led up to the recession, which began in December 2007. Foreclosure filings were down 59 percent in Cleveland, 45 percent in […]