Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Suburban Blight

I really want to pay a visit to one of these areas, though I haven't yet read anything about anything near to me.

Brown, unwatered lawns of foreclosed homes compete with the green grass of neighbors still hanging on. Some of the structures, although new, are missing outdoor equipment like air conditioners, taken by metal thieves. One in 4 houses of the neighborhood stands empty, and mortgage defaults are certain to push even more residents, mostly Hispanic immigrants, out of their homes.

It's a sign of the home-loan crisis' uneven impact: light in some areas, heavy in others – often those populated by minorities or the lower-middle class. The concern now is that the woes concentrated in these pockets of foreclosure will spread outward, causing home prices to spiral down rapidly and broadly.



And the moment anyone became aware of this fact should've been the moment we all knew the game was over:

In Modesto, investors made up roughly a third of buyers in recent years, says John Hillas, a local appraiser. That's bad news for the city, since investors are more likely to default than live-in owners, according to Mr. Gabriel.


For 3+ years in much of the country, the amount of money one could expect to receive in rent was much lower than mortgage and maintenance on the house.