New Homebuyers Find Themselves Stuck Living In Unfinished Development With Plunging Property Values

In Bradenton, Florida, the Bradenton Herald reports:

• If the Greenbrook homeowners' association didn't know there are unhappy residents in Greenbrook Preserve, Ravine and Banks, they know now. [Last] Tuesday, roughly 60 residents attended the Greenbrook Village Association's board meeting at Town Hall. Most were there to express frustration that their neighborhoods are filled with many vacant lots that builders haven't been able to sell due to the slumping housing market.

• Some of these lots have tall mounds of dirt, concrete chunks, wood pallets and weeds, residents reported. These conditions are in neighborhoods where residents said they paid between $700,000 to $800,000 for their homes.

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• [Homeowner Allison] Moore said she paid $750,000 for her home in the Preserve in 2006 and a comparable home down the street recently sold in a foreclosure short sale for $380,000. Residents are afraid they will have to live next to vacant lots for years. Residents were told there is no way the association can force the builders to build homes on the lots, finish the handful of unfinished homes, or force them to sod the lots.

Attempts to grow grass by seeding the vacant lots were foiled by hungry birds, according to the story.

For more, see Vacant lots anger Ranch residents.