Monday, November 19, 2007

O.C. and the Inland Empire

In Orange County about 20% of properties on the market are considered to be distressed properties, either in foreclosure or a short sale.

And we learn a new word: trash-outs.

Foreclosed homes all over the Inland Empire are turning into what Lisa Carvalho calls "trash-outs" - wooden and stucco carcasses with piles of junk left behind by former tenants.

In the big picture, the Riverside-San Bernardino area ranked No. 3 in the United States on the home-foreclosure chart for metro areas, according to a Wednesday report by RealtyTrac, a real-estate data company in Irvine. There were more than 20,600 foreclosure filings during the third quarter of this year, it stated.

It's partially Carvalho's job to get junk hauled out of these abandoned homes.

"There's usually debris and clothing and beds," said Carvalho, co-owner of Casablanca Associates Inc. in Ontario.

The company, among others, has its hands full cleaning out foreclosures in the San Bernardino and Ontario areas.


...

The High Desert offers even more interesting tales.

The area is full of tract homes in subdivisions that have stacks of furniture piled inside every room, she said.

"These typically look like they're occupied, but they're not trashed," she said about these homes. "(The owners) just walk away and wash their hands of it."



(via hbb)