The world is upside down again: Banks are walking away while homeowners are staying to fight for their neighborhoods.
That’s what the team at Oppenheim Law realized after watching 60 Minutes’ latest piece on the foreclosure crisis. This time Scott Pelley focused on a neighborhood in Cleveland where officials has resorted to tearing down what were once perfectly good homes.
Why? Because the banks that control the homes have been acting as terrible irresponsible neighbors. The end result is too many neighborhoods are littered with abandoned properties, many of which have been stripped to the bone by thieves. As many as 25 percent of these homes are now empty, according to Pelley. These neighborhoods, of which there are far too many, have fallen into a state of disrepair, where a total tear-down is the only option.
You don’t have to be underwater to get splashed
Probably the most disturbing revelation to come out of the 60 Minutes story was the foreclosure crisis has impacted all homeowners, regardless of whether they are in danger of losing their homes or not. In fact their homes didn’t even need to be underwater to feel the pinch of the housing mess.
With countless homes now empty and transformed into eyesores, those who remain are seeing their property values sink faster than the Titanic. People are left with homes that are virtually worthless and unsellable, so even if they wanted to buy a home somewhere else, it’s unlikely they could.
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