Foreclosure Houses Take Center Stage in NeighborWorks Drive CreditCardsMasterInfo

Foreclosure Houses Take Center Stage in NeighborWorks Drive

Filed Under (Foreclosures) by admin on 28-01-2010

Foreclosure houses have become the center stage of the campaign of NeighborWorks America to preserve property values and maintain stability in neighborhoods. NeighborWorks is being helped in its campaign other neighborhood-focused nonprofits like the National Housing Institute and the National Vacant Properties Campaign.

These nonprofits are concerned about the negative impact of vacant foreclosure homes on neighborhoods, on the safety of families and on the value of properties.

According to figures from the Center of Responsible Lending, almost 50 percent of short sales and foreclosure sales in 2009 involved huge discounts, with nearly 70 percent of nondistressed homes or new homes near foreclosure properties sold off at discounts averaging $7,200.

All in all, the downward price pressure of foreclosure properties in the real estate market caused a total loss of $502 billion in property values in 2009.

In the next several years, the center said that 91.5 million of properties near distressed and foreclosed properties will suffer price declines, ultimately cutting down the tax base and the tax revenues used to fund basic services for communities.

According to NeighborWorks, residents of neighborhoods should not wait for government entities to act to prevent foreclosure houses from pulling them down to decay. Residents should take the initiative in preserving the quality of their communities and the values of their properties.

There are strategies they can carry out that do not cost a lot of money and effort, such as contacting nonprofits to conduct foreclosure prevention workshops, inviting lenders and servicers to hold meetings at community centers, organizing neighborhood watches and launching a team that would track foreclosure properties and ensure that owners do their maintenance work.

One strategy that neighborhoods could implement is the selection of block leaders that would track foreclosures and that would talk with lenders about the maintenance of the properties. Leaders, however, need to ask their elected local officials how they can carry out tracking and maintenance tasks without violating trespassing laws and related laws.

Federal officials and legislators have long recognized the impact of foreclosures on neighborhoods, so they have supported the law that authorized the disbursement of millions of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds.

However, the funds are limited. In the second funding round, even some big cities battered foreclosure houses were not given funds. It is therefore imperative for neighborhood residents to take the initiative in caring for their own neighborhoods.

Personal Finance and Money Management