Thursday, May 29, 2008
What You COULD do About a Vacant House In Your Neighborhood
FISCALLY FIT By TERRI CULLEN Nobody's Home
A Vacant House in the Neighborhood Is Cause for Concern for the CullensMay 28, 2008
Two years ago this spring, we noticed the house was empty.
The woman who owned the tiny blue house a block away from our home had lived there for as long as my husband Gerry could remember -- and we live in the house Gerry grew up in. Most weeks we'd drive by and see her, picking up her mail or tending to her flower garden.
But as summer approached in 2006, Gerry and I noticed her absence -- and before long a "For Sale" sign had popped up on her lawn. We later discovered the woman had moved to a nursing home, and her family had put the house up for sale.
Two years later, the house still sits vacant. And, like many vacant homes, it's become something of a problem for its neighbors. The tiny blue 1930s-style bungalow would have been listed as "in need of some TLC" -- whether its owner resided there or not: The windows, roof and siding were in desperate need of repair. Now, the lawn and garden that were once carefully tended have grown wild, and the house has gone from a quaint reminder of our neighborhood's roots to an eyesore that's dragging down the fair market value of the homes around it.
The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research group, estimates that a home's value is reduced by about 1% for every home that is foreclosed on or sits vacant in the neighborhood. (That comes to $4,500 for our home, assuming it has a market value of about $450,000.)
Is five grand really a cause for worry? Luckily for us, we don't plan on selling our home in the foreseeable future, and accessing our home equity in the event of a financial crisis isn't a concern because we keep a large home-equity line of credit open.
But if we did plan to sell (or worse, needed to sell and our mortgage balance was higher than the home's fair market value), the vacant home's impact on us would indeed hurt. There's also a quality-of-life issue: Gerry and I spend a good deal of time, energy and money to make our home an attractive place to live. A run-down, vacant home nearby diminishes those efforts.
We contacted the real-estate agency about the home's condition several times, but never got a response. So to keep the vacant home from dragging down our home's value -- and in hopes that our efforts might help it catch a new caretaker's eye -- Gerry and I decided to take matters into our own hands.
We started looking through the neighborhood flyers, plastic bags, and local free-subscription newspapers that accumulated on the lawn to make sure there was no official mail in the mix, then tossed the mess. Gerry also runs our lawn mower across the yard every other week to tidy it up. (The property has no walk, but if it did we might also consider using our snow blower to keep it clear of snow and ice.)
Finally, while I'd never suggest homeowners take it upon themselves to make repairs on a vacant home, there's no harm in periodically checking to make sure doors and windows are secure.
There are other reasons to be concerned about a vacant home in the neighborhood. Even in the best neighborhoods, vacant homes can attract unwanted visitors. Real-estate agents and prospective home buyers are usually easy to recognize. (Hint: look for a clipboard). But if you see teens or adults you don't recognize coming and going at unusual hours of the day, contact the real-estate agent or the local police. In general, use your common sense and if something looks suspicious, report it.
In addition to watching out for suspicious activity, it also can pay to shine a light on the problem. Motion-detecting exterior home lights may help to prevent those bent on trouble from trying to enter a nearby vacant home at night. A solar-powered motion-detecting lamps is easy to install, and will cost you between $50 and $100.
Besides stranger danger, fire can be a threat when there's a vacant home in the neighborhood, whether it's a blaze set intentionally by homeowners seeking to make an insurance claim or by accident when squatters invade the home and attempt to cook and keep warm without power. Besides keeping an eye on a vacant property, there's not much neighbors can do to prevent a fire. But a house fire can pose a threat to neighboring homes.
That threat's as good an excuse as any to make sure our home's fire-prevention devices are in good, working condition. Smoke detectors, which cost about $25, generally should be replaced after 10 years. And if you've done extensive renovations or additions to your home, make sure you're properly protected. (Learn more from FEMA here.)
We should be thankful there's just one problem home on the block. The homeowner-vacancy rate, which measures the number of vacant homes for sale, rose to 2.9% of all homes for sale in the first quarter of 2008, the Census Bureau reported. And the Northeast, where we live, has seen one of the biggest increases in vacancy rates. Until that glut of unsold homes begins to ease, home prices will remain under pressure. That, in turn, will make it more difficult for the tiny blue home on our block to find an owner, as first-time homebuyers find bigger, newer homes more affordable.
Until the empty house changes hands, we'll keep doing what we can to make it as welcoming as possible to potential buyers -- and as uninviting as we can make it for would-be troublemakers.
A Vacant House in the Neighborhood Is Cause for Concern for the CullensMay 28, 2008
Two years ago this spring, we noticed the house was empty.
The woman who owned the tiny blue house a block away from our home had lived there for as long as my husband Gerry could remember -- and we live in the house Gerry grew up in. Most weeks we'd drive by and see her, picking up her mail or tending to her flower garden.
But as summer approached in 2006, Gerry and I noticed her absence -- and before long a "For Sale" sign had popped up on her lawn. We later discovered the woman had moved to a nursing home, and her family had put the house up for sale.
Two years later, the house still sits vacant. And, like many vacant homes, it's become something of a problem for its neighbors. The tiny blue 1930s-style bungalow would have been listed as "in need of some TLC" -- whether its owner resided there or not: The windows, roof and siding were in desperate need of repair. Now, the lawn and garden that were once carefully tended have grown wild, and the house has gone from a quaint reminder of our neighborhood's roots to an eyesore that's dragging down the fair market value of the homes around it.
The Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research group, estimates that a home's value is reduced by about 1% for every home that is foreclosed on or sits vacant in the neighborhood. (That comes to $4,500 for our home, assuming it has a market value of about $450,000.)
Is five grand really a cause for worry? Luckily for us, we don't plan on selling our home in the foreseeable future, and accessing our home equity in the event of a financial crisis isn't a concern because we keep a large home-equity line of credit open.
But if we did plan to sell (or worse, needed to sell and our mortgage balance was higher than the home's fair market value), the vacant home's impact on us would indeed hurt. There's also a quality-of-life issue: Gerry and I spend a good deal of time, energy and money to make our home an attractive place to live. A run-down, vacant home nearby diminishes those efforts.
We contacted the real-estate agency about the home's condition several times, but never got a response. So to keep the vacant home from dragging down our home's value -- and in hopes that our efforts might help it catch a new caretaker's eye -- Gerry and I decided to take matters into our own hands.
We started looking through the neighborhood flyers, plastic bags, and local free-subscription newspapers that accumulated on the lawn to make sure there was no official mail in the mix, then tossed the mess. Gerry also runs our lawn mower across the yard every other week to tidy it up. (The property has no walk, but if it did we might also consider using our snow blower to keep it clear of snow and ice.)
Finally, while I'd never suggest homeowners take it upon themselves to make repairs on a vacant home, there's no harm in periodically checking to make sure doors and windows are secure.
There are other reasons to be concerned about a vacant home in the neighborhood. Even in the best neighborhoods, vacant homes can attract unwanted visitors. Real-estate agents and prospective home buyers are usually easy to recognize. (Hint: look for a clipboard). But if you see teens or adults you don't recognize coming and going at unusual hours of the day, contact the real-estate agent or the local police. In general, use your common sense and if something looks suspicious, report it.
In addition to watching out for suspicious activity, it also can pay to shine a light on the problem. Motion-detecting exterior home lights may help to prevent those bent on trouble from trying to enter a nearby vacant home at night. A solar-powered motion-detecting lamps is easy to install, and will cost you between $50 and $100.
Besides stranger danger, fire can be a threat when there's a vacant home in the neighborhood, whether it's a blaze set intentionally by homeowners seeking to make an insurance claim or by accident when squatters invade the home and attempt to cook and keep warm without power. Besides keeping an eye on a vacant property, there's not much neighbors can do to prevent a fire. But a house fire can pose a threat to neighboring homes.
That threat's as good an excuse as any to make sure our home's fire-prevention devices are in good, working condition. Smoke detectors, which cost about $25, generally should be replaced after 10 years. And if you've done extensive renovations or additions to your home, make sure you're properly protected. (Learn more from FEMA here.)
We should be thankful there's just one problem home on the block. The homeowner-vacancy rate, which measures the number of vacant homes for sale, rose to 2.9% of all homes for sale in the first quarter of 2008, the Census Bureau reported. And the Northeast, where we live, has seen one of the biggest increases in vacancy rates. Until that glut of unsold homes begins to ease, home prices will remain under pressure. That, in turn, will make it more difficult for the tiny blue home on our block to find an owner, as first-time homebuyers find bigger, newer homes more affordable.
Until the empty house changes hands, we'll keep doing what we can to make it as welcoming as possible to potential buyers -- and as uninviting as we can make it for would-be troublemakers.
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