Townhouse Development Plagued With Foreclosures; Remaining Owners "On Verge Of Losing Everything"

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Pioneer Press reports:

• When he moved to Grey's Riverview Terrace three years ago, Christopher Rocco figured the town home association that runs the complex was in good enough shape. It had about $25,000 on hand, and most of the units had just been reroofed. He never envisioned the jam Riverview Terrace finds itself in today. The wave of foreclosures sweeping across the Twin Cities has hammered the little community on St. Paul's West Side.

• Of the 21 town homes, nine are in foreclosure, according to Rocco, the association's 37-year-old president. The group can't fix Riverview's rotting siding because it has just $37 - plus $5,000 in debt it can't pay and a ledger filled with unpaid monthly dues and late fees totaling more than $35,000. "We are on the verge of losing everything," Rocco said. "It's a lot of stress." [...] Now, five of the nine units in foreclosure sit empty.

• Complicating matters, the remaining owners can't foot the bill to replace the damaged siding, a type of engineered wood. To fix it, Rocco estimates, his association would have to levy a special assessment on remaining homeowners for $5,000 to $10,000 each. That's just too much, he said, given that pretty much everyone in the complex lives from paycheck to paycheck. [...] The eyesore siding compounds the challenge of selling the empty units in a market glutted with offerings.

For more, see Foreclosures 'like a cancer' for some communities (A West Side development struggles to stay afloat as town homes sit empty). (if link expired, try here).