County is fixing up houses (foreclosures, HOA, mortgage) - Tampa Bay - Florida (FL) -Tampa - St. Petersburg - Clearwater - City-Data Forum

bentlebee · 01-03-2010, 12:47 PM

The charity came in after Pasco County bought the house in September from Citibank to shore up eroding property values in an area hit hard by foreclosures. Citibank had taken the house back from its previous owner seven months earlier.

For a $7,500 developer's fee, Habitat for Humanity's west Pasco chapter repaired the house, which is back on the market for nearly $90,000.

The house is one of 185 Pasco has either bought outright or has under contract, said George Romagnoli, director of the county's community development division.

This year, Pasco qualified for nearly $20 million from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program. That was the fifth-highest award in the state, an indicator of how hard the housing downturn hit Pasco's housing market.

Pasco is still waiting to hear about another round of rehab money it sought in conjunction with Pinellas County. About two-thirds of that $50 million grant would come to Pasco, much of it earmarked for the central part of the county.

County is fixing up houses

Sunny-Days-in-Florida · 01-03-2010, 09:22 PM

This is great news.

With the huge amounts of foreclosures and empty houses hurting the values of homes around them, this needs to be done.

algia · 01-04-2010, 05:18 AM

They should demolish them like they did in California........ put the poor trees back! not waste more money.......

bentlebee · 01-04-2010, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunny-Days90

This is great news.

With the huge amounts of foreclosures and empty houses hurting the values of homes around them, this needs to be done.

For some houses it is indeed great. I recently noticed that a home with some broken windows in the garage is bought by the county. It is a beautiful home and for sure not a home to demolish.

The owners never repaired the small windows but rather drove their expensive ($100K) Mercedes and other expensive car, wear nice clothes and played baseball with their kids, instead of ever mowing and maintaining the lawn and repairing the windows that were broken due to playing baseball, basket ball and soccer in the driveway.

We all were so glad they had to move and hopefully the county makes some money and great people move in!

algia · 01-04-2010, 06:03 AM

They need to asses all aspects of these communities in Pasco because if it will end up costing more and then still sit on the market and not have a good value, then that will be a waste of money....sure some of these homes might be beautiful but if location sucks and over 70% are foreclosed on then it would take a LOT more to revive such a community......some of these communities are so far from everything civilized it's crazy......these builders did not take into account anything other than their own pockets when they over build those lands.....didn't think of commute time, proximity to shops and entertainment etc...the homes they demolished in California were in the same situation, far from everything human and it was cheaper to demolish them than continue to pour money into a dead end area....those property values would have only gone down because there was nothing in close proximity other than desert...or pastures here!

bentlebee · 01-04-2010, 06:28 AM

I can asure you that the county did a great buy with this home! All homes are selling over here pretty fast also due to the lower prices and great location. The biggest deal with some homes are that they still aren't foreclosed on and the lenders might have forgotten they still own them due to selling the mortgage papers so many times...We have a few that are empty since 2007 and really seem to forgotten by who ever owns the homes...the owners even walked away in 2007 and the HOA is taking care of the yards.

algia · 01-04-2010, 07:45 AM

there are 3 homes on our street that are still being foreclosed on since 2007 and we're in Hillsborough county close to everything... by direct comparison to some of the Pasco county sub divisions in the middle of nowhere.....it depends how far these places are buried in Pasco county, if you're on 54 or really close to it, then that's fine, but if you take Land o Lake blvd about 45 minutes north, those subdivisions are so far away from everything it's not funny or worth saving as far as I am concerned at least......unless you create a WHOLE town around them......

bentlebee · 01-04-2010, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by algia

there are 3 homes on our street that are still being foreclosed on since 2007 and we're in Hillsborough county close to everything... by direct comparison to some of the Pasco county sub divisions in the middle of nowhere.....it depends how far these places are buried in Pasco county, if you're on 54 or really close to it, then that's fine, but if you take Land o Lake blvd about 45 minutes north, those subdivisions are so far away from everything it's not funny or worth saving as far as I am concerned at least......unless you create a WHOLE town around them......

I'm glad I neverbought around the place you describe, but in the future shopping will be build around these communities which are now in the middle of nowhere, although it might take a couple of years and demolish a few houses in a for the rest completed community makes no sense. That only makes sense for homes that are completely destroyed and I trust the county so much that they won't buy any bad homes, and if they do make that mistake that person will not much longer have a job

sammbriggs · 01-05-2010, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by algia

They should demolish them like they did in California........ put the poor trees back! not waste more money.......

I would rather sell them to the highest bidder. Isn't that the way most liquidations are handled? I'll bet that there are many people out there who would love to live in some of these homes and would gladly bid on them