When you hear the term "foreclosure property," what comes to mind? A dilapidated crack house in a marginal neighborhood? If it is, be prepared to change your perceptions, because the face of foreclosure is changing. It’s affecting upscale homes and neighborhoods to the detriment of their neighbors. According to Wednesday’s Los Angeles Times: [Thank you L!]
Houses abandoned to foreclosure are beginning to breed trouble, adding neighbors to the growing ranks of victims.
Stagnant swimming pools spawn mosquitoes, which can carry the potentially deadly West Nile virus. Empty rooms lure squatters and vandals. And brown lawns and dead vegetation are creating eyesores in well-tended neighborhoods.
Here’s a great example from my hometown of Gilbert, AZ. There’s a upscale neighborhood called Chaparral Estates West just off of Williams Field Rd. The homes were built by Toll Brothers, and the neighborhood is well groomed, [Some properties in here have sold for over $1 million] with the exception of this property on Clifton Court:
Although the lawn is currently dead, on closer inspection the sod squares are still visible- whatever went wrong, went wrong fast. That’s a half finished fountain in the front yard by the way, and there’s an enormous half finished pool in the back yard to go with it:
The house was purchased from Toll in 2004 for $577,451- and was foreclosed on August 7 of this year.
I couldn’t tell you what caused the problem here- although a whopping unpaid bill for the swimming pool seems to have figured prominently. Anywhere in the Valley though where people bought a house they can’t afford to stay in now is a likely candidate for a foreclosure, which means you can find them just about anywhere.
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Very …’majestic’ springs to mind. Wouldn’t mind picking up a more humble distressed home though out there in the desert though. I *love* the desert. Are there any *jobs* in Gilbert??? (note: my food-service industry days were over when I was in my teens)
A good friend of mine picked up a massive McMansion in the low $130K range in the mid 1990s in Lancaster CA during the last bust. Previous selling price was mid $300′s
His house was a little too over-the-top for my taste, especially for a family of 3. This one reminds me of that.
Weird about the 1/2 built pool… somebody didn’t major in math
Idaho Spud-
I think the mechanic’s lien was for around $87K for that pool- it makes me wonder what the finished price would be. You can’t really tell from the picture, but that pool is enormous, with two spas, waterfalls, and a travertine deck.
I think the pool was started in 2006, but it looks like he may have been having financial troubles in 2005. There was a notice in the Recorder’s Office from Paddock that said that the release of this lien was forged- it wasn’t done by them- so there’s probably a real interesting story behind this one.
The amount of the Trustee’s Deed Upon Sale by the way was $89,622- I think it went back to the lender. It would take someone with more expertise than I though to sort out the public record.
I was going to say that my daughter tells me that they are hiring at the Starbucks where she works, but I guess that won’t work for you. : )
There may be more opportunities to work for Maricopa County though, spraying slimy green pools in abandoned homes for mosquito abatement programs.
Oh, and this house has 5,128 square feet, and a nice large corner lot.
Starbucks (as you suspected) is a non-starter
Hmmm… I’d kinda like to get out of doing the commuting thing.
Just noticed the big pedestal out front. Perhaps intended for a statue of Robert E. Lee on his prancing horse, cutlass raised?
Something subtle for the neighbors to appreciate?
Idaho Spud -
Shame on you. Traveller never pranced, and Lee never wore a cutlass.
Wow, never in my life did I think I would see…a Robert E. Lee reference on this board. With the state of that pedestal/fountain, maybe Stonewall Jackson would be more appropriate.
Bad news, twist, the Maricopa County jobs office reported that 6,000 American Home Mortgage ex-employees applied for the 50 mosquito-abatement jobs.
Very sorry agnostic. Didn’t perform due diligence on my civil war generals, hehe. I do recall a statue such as I described while visiting DC, just didn’t recall who it was. Stonewall Jackson? I dunno.
My county (Kern) has the distinction of having the highest # of human West Nile infections and fatalities in California. A bad combination of primordial life in neglected backyard swimming pools and people who hate any form of taxation to pay for public services… yet we want help from the state!?!
twist, expect to see some more in this neighborhood. I was just talking to a broker friend of mine who had mentioned a neighbor in this neighboorhood also about to go belly up.
In the next year, I imagine we’ll see plenty more, especially in Gilbert.
Fountains are a big deal in this neighborhood, a lot of homes have them. Some of them are lovely, and a couple of them are kind of silly looking, frankly. I’m guessing this guy was going to outdo the Joneses with his. Well if his goal was to have the most “distinctive” yard in the neighborhood, he achieved it.
MG-
Yeah, Gilbert used to call itself The Hay Capital of the World. Now we are in the running for Foreclosure Capital of Maricopa County.
I thought Gilbert was overpriced in the mid 80′s when we lived in Mesa.
Wow, 500k+ back in 2004?
And I bought in Scottsdale in 2003 for 220k on property that they now try to get 475k+.
Waiting for it to go back down has become something of a hobby for me….
Nordaq-
And sadly, the folks that bought those places at $500K then can’t seem to come to grips with reality- now a lot of them can’t understand why no one wants to pay a million for their house now.
By the way folks, Channel 12 here in Phoenix, [NBC] says they’ll be broadcasting live in front of this place tonight at 6:00 pm.
Looks like a good deal at 200k. Tear out the half fountain, finish the pool, put a nice yard in. Although it may be cheaper to just tear that old pool out and start new. Then again what on Gods green earth would I do with a 5000 square feet of Mcmansion. Hmmm cut it in half and make 2 houses.
Richinaz-
I was in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago, and I kept walking by some really lovely brownstones near Central Park. Origially built as single family dwellings, they are now almost all chopped up into apartments- I think this started back in the 20s when apartments had more of a market than what were the McMansions of their time.
It’s been a few months since I looked at the numbers, but last I checked, there were over 70 homes for sale in Gilbert listed for over a million- and I think that only 50+ homes had sold north of $1M- ever.
At least in NYC, you could recycle a McMansion as a multifamily building. What on earth are we going to do with them all in QC and Gilbert?
I still remember when Gilbert and Chandler were farms and Queen Creek was desert. I don’t know what we do with those area’s now Twist. I know from some of your posts that you grew up here so you must remember what it used to be like. I see the only answer of what to do is make these homes affordable enough so average people can buy them and I think things will be ok. They will be able to fix them up and take pride in their home. We seem to be loosing that ideal with buy em, fix em, and flip em. I love the beauty of Arizona but it’s being plowed under. At least that will slow down now.
Richinaz-
I spent my high school years in a home way out in the country at Elliot and Price in Chandler- if you had told us that someday they would put a freeway down Price, we would have thought you were pretty funny. Price wasn’t paved south of Warner.
I went to Mesa High where they made fun of my hick Chandler address. We were grateful for Gilbert- we could say that maybe we were hicks, but at least we were more uptown than Gilbert!
I remember sitting out on the corral though, and watching the sun go down over South Mountain, and there wasn’t much between my fence and the mountain. Phoenix was close if you wanted to watch the Suns or the Symphony- but you could hear yourself think when you came home.
They have plowed too much under- I’m not sorry to see it slow down.
“The amount of the Trustees Deed Upon Sale by the way was $89,622- I think it went back to the lender. It would take someone with more expertise than I though to sort out the public record.”
Damn. I will buy this home in cash for $89,622! I agree that homes are going down in value but anyone that thinks this house is worth that is delusional. In fact, I live in Gilbert as well, and if no other savvy investors are already not looking up the lenders REO dept. to negotiate on this already, I will.
Come on guys. Housing doom, I agree things got out of control, but if you think that this is not a deal, then just keep renting.
RE Investor-
If it were at simple as picking this place up for $89K- the post would have been on the deal I picked up. I think there are other liens involved here though- I don’t believe the original mortgage was satisfied.
There may be a deal here for someone- but I suspect they’ll have to work for it- and pay more than 89K.
500k isn’t a bad price, I bet they could get that now, if the house wasn’t distressed.
That is less than $100 per SQft.
Richinaz, if you think that the depressed market will slow down development, you are nuts. It wil slow down development temporarily, but in the long run, decreased prices will lead to greater demand. And because of the decreased prices, builders will go where it is cheap to build (ie virgin land), and will not reclaim infill developments (expensive property costs, plus more expensive construction).
Think of it like recylcing, when aluminum is cheap, it goes in the landfill. When it is expensive, it gets scavenged.
The solution to our development crisis is not increased zoning, or land controls (tho these might be part), is to reduce the demand for housing. Past generations raised large families in 800-1000 sf houses. Lots seemed bigger because the house footprint was small. If everyone was content for housing sufficient for their needs (not wants), and could live in the space that was sufficient for their grandparents, and great grandparents, we could use the land a lot more efficiently.