Foreclosure Ghost Towns

The following stories describe the kind of mess vacant foreclosed homes and condos are creating in the neighborhoods in which they're located:

• Fort Lauderdale, Florida: [Developer Glenn] Wright has left a trail of lawsuits, unhappy contractors, angry would-be homeowners and unfinished building sites. His development companies are in the red for more than $100 million, according to Blair International, the company that now holds Wright's properties. [...] Over the past 10 months, 34 lawsuits have been filed in Broward County courts against Wright and his companies, chiefly Glenn Wright Construction & Development. Not only are homebuyers unhappy; at least eight contractors or subcontractors have sued Wright. And his grandest project, La Preserve, is in limbo. Off Southwest 20th Street and 14th Avenue, it was envisioned as an idyllic gated community of upscale homes, surrounded by footbridges, gazebos and the lush greenery of old Florida. Homes there sold for as much as $1 million. Today, 39 of the 67 properties in La Preserve are in foreclosure. Some were never finished. Other homes were built but sit empty. [...] The unfinished houses in Victoria Park have become magnets for the homeless, [president of the Victoria Park Civic Association Jay] Holloway said. Condoms and beer cans have been found littering the sites, he said. See Unfinished business: High-end home builder in Fort Lauderdale sued, properties in foreclosure (High-end builder in Lauderdale sued, properties in foreclosure).

• Chicago, Illinois: The children who live on West Wilcox Street won't go out at night for fear of 12 vacant graystones that draw criminals to their block. In Rogers Park, a half-empty 39-unit condo building on Farwell Avenue has become a hide-out for squatters and feral cats. Two streets that have little in common—Wilcox on the West Side and Farwell on the North— illustrate the latest chapter of the housing crisis: a surge in vacant homes that is sinking property values and blighting swaths of the city. As foreclosures soar to historic levels, the infection has spread beyond places of perennial concern, such as West Garfield Park and Englewood. Condo ghost towns replete with granite and stainless steel have emerged on stretches of the North Side, leaving a pox of hollow buildings dotting the landscape. [... In Humbolt Park], gangs often take over abandoned homes, peeling back the bowed plywood from the windows to store drugs and set up shop, residents say. [...] In Chicago Lawn, hardly a block has been spared. People are walking away from homes they can neither sell nor afford. See Foreclosures spur neighborhood ghost towns (Chicago beset with a staggering number of vacant homes).

• East Cleveland, Ohio: Residents of one Cleveland suburb said enough is enough. They are tired of seeing abandoned homes on every corner, and they are taking action. East Cleveland has more than 2,200 empty homes -- that's 20 percent of the city. It has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, NewsChannel5 reported. See Residents Want Abandoned Homes Torn Down.

• New York City: When the Oro Condominiums building in Downtown Brooklyn was still under construction in 2007, the Brooklyn Paper branded it as a "deluxe singles bar in the sky." Now, though, the glitter has apparently faded. On a recent winter night, only a smattering of light emanated from the otherwise eerily dark (though now completed) 40-story luxury tower on 306 Gold Street, not far from the Manhattan Bridge. A hip-looking young woman entering the building, who identified herself as an owner of one of the 300 homes but who preferred to remain anonymous, said the building "feels empty." See Confronting the Condo Glut.

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