OMG! Wow eclipxe are you sure you did not mistakenly type in a Detroit zip code?
I admire your positivity; anyone who can paint that picture anything but bleak is unique. Those “nothing but dirt” mysteries are foreclosed on lots, an entire development gone to foreclosure.
No mystery on the occupied foreclosure issue either or haven’t you heard that people are staying in houses free for 18 months and spending the loot at PF Changs??? The folks I’ve encountered who are living for free do indeed take good care of the homes; wouldn’t you want to give the bank a reason to let you stay free longer?
Now add in the shadow inventory and the picture gets worse.
Sure that picture is GD1 horrible right now, but that’s just the start. Right now we are at the beginning of a huge wave of ARM resets that won’t even peak until 2011 and will keep on spreading pain thru 2012. When more and more of your neighbors get ARM notices saying they can no longer pay the minimum payment and their monthly nut shoots up 50%, 60%, what do you see happening? What would you do if your house was worth $200k LESS than what you owe the bank, and now the bank wants a much bigger chunk of your paycheck to stay in that insanely underwater house?
How about the guy who bought just six months ago? What will he do in a year when his house is worth $80K less than he paid and he see’s he can simply buy across the street, jingle-mail the keys to the anchor, and be $80k ahead?
Its a good thing that you are not an “investor” as rents are falling too, so today’s cash-flow rentals will be 2010s underwater foreclosures.