Defaults Hit Home Values

Foreclosure homes vary in appearance from community to community. Some foreclosure sales are handled quietly and quickly resold by the lender for market value. One day a moving van pulls up, loads the occupant’s belongings and departs, shortly followed by a real estate broker’s For Sale sign. Few weeks later, a sold sign pops up and new owners move in.

In other neighborhoods, a foreclosed home might be boarded up and plastered with large signs advertising bank-owned or REO. Some of those homes might remain in an abandoned condition for years. The weeds grow high enough to cover sidewalks, pranksters throw rocks through second-floor windows, and the home becomes an eyesore, a dumping ground for used mattresses and automobile parts.

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