City officials say there are now 6,117 vacant properties in Columbus, the largest number anyone can remember.

It's the latest sign that the foreclosure crisis continues to take a toll here as neighborhoods battle eyesores and the city sinks more than $50 million in federal money into boosting the hardest-hit areas.

   This most recent tally represents an increase of nearly 5 percent from February 2010. If there's a silver lining, it might be that the increase is less than the 8 percent jump from February 2009 to February 2010.

   "The bad news is, it continues to outpace our ability to address it," said Dan Williamson, spokesman for Mayor Michael B. Coleman. "It's difficult to build strong neighborhoods   when you have buildings boarded up."

   The city said the vast majority of vacant properties are single-family or two-family houses that inspectors have deemed empty for more than 60 days and not up for sale or rent.

   The hardest-hit areas are the Near East Side, the Hilltop and North and South Linden, said Dana Rose, city code-enforcement manager.

   Geoff Phillips knows all about it. He leads the     Highland West Neighbors Association on the eastern end of the Hilltop. He's seen houses destroyed by tenants when they're kicked out, stripped of wiring and plumbing, and unable to be rented without extensive rehab.

   So they sit. Empty.

   "Basically, it runs down the whole neighborhood," said Phillips.

   In the area east of Hague Avenue, where Phillips lives, property values have declined 25 to 30 percent over the past two to three years, said Steve Torsell, who leads the nonprofit group Homes on the Hill, which develops affordable housing.  

   His organization is trying to fight the plague with several projects, including one called Hilltop Homes. It's using federal neighborhood-stabilization money to help renovate 20 houses and build 10 more in the central Hilltop area. The lease-to-own homes should be done by 2012.

   The city has received more   than $50 million to buy and renovate or demolish vacant, foreclosed properties. So far, it has acquired 264 homes, with 133 in redevelopment and 94 headed for demolition.

   And in 2006, Coleman set aside $25 million of the city's own money to do the same.

   State Rep. Dennis Murray, D-Sandusky, has introduced a bill that would force lenders to ask for sheriff's sales 90 days after a foreclosure judgment or face a court order that would move the property into a county land bank.  

   Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. said he wants to see state law changed so that a property could be sold at a sheriff's sale at less than the two-thirds of appraised value that is now required.

   "These properties aren't selling," he said. "That tells me something's wrong with the appraisal process, that the marketplace says it's all wrong."

   Mike Adelman of the Ohio Bankers League said his group supports that concept. 

mferenchik@dispatch.com