Foreclosures Blighting Entire Neighbourhoods

August 28th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosures

With the housing crisis worsening foreclosures are blighting entire neighbourhoods dotting the place with ‘For Sale’ and ‘Notice of Foreclosure’ signs. These vacant houses are a curse for the locality. The overgrown lawns creep up to the structures that begin to crumble. Rodents and mould lending helping hands. Vandals expedite the work as they pillage and rob. Drugs and prostitution rings send shivers down the peace of the locality.

According to RealtyTrac over 220 houses and foreclosure in New Britain. Apart from these 43 are listed for auction and 79 have been repossessed by the banks. In Hartford County out of every 810 houses, one is cowering under the risk of foreclosure. All this has resulted in a crowding in of houses for sale in the real estate market. Hundreds of houses, apartment complexes and condos are lying empty and abandoned. It takes a long time for these to make it to the over worked courts.

Each foreclosure listing has a tale behind it. Artur and Beata Sarat saw their house on Overlook Avenue go into the pre-foreclosure stage. But when they realized that there was little chance of holding on to the house that had been their home for long eleven years, they just left it and walked away without a murmur. Initially they had rented out the second storey of the house but when the tenant left they could not manage the mortgage. The couple now lives in rented quarters with their daughter. Beata is unwell and her husband has had to opt for a lower paying job having lost the previous one. Today the house is an eyesore with peeling paint and downed black shutters. Creepers and weeds have begun to crawl up the edifice. Neighbours fearfully ask each other as to who is accountable for this condition to happen. Their worry is that this will bring down the value of other units in the locality. This is happening all over the town.

Sylvania Garcia comes to visit her mother in Overlook Avenue. She thinks the banks should be held responsible for this situation that is affecting the entire neighbourhood. She feels that if the banks fail then the city fathers should step in to clean and maintain the units. Later a lien can be put on the property and the costs recovered from the next owner. Maintenance involves heavy expenditure and this is what is deterring the city authorities from coming forward.