Dallas County Neighborhoods Filled With Foreclosed Homes

August 17th, 2007

The situation in Dallas County is getting worse day by day. The houses which were once occupied by happy families now have the tag of resale / foreclosure posted on them. The foreclosure tragedy is spreading its wings all over the county of Dallas. Around 16500 houses comprising a massive locality are under the gloom of foreclosure.

Banks occupying large portions of the locality, even if it is just one house in the area, affects the whole neighborhood harshly. On just a single block of Desoto there are around seven to eight foreclosures. This scene has made the neighbors whose houses are safe restless, because of the constant insecurity surrounding them all the time.

The rising dues of the homes in the area put the integrity of a neighboring owner at stake. It also affects the realty value of the neighborhood dramatically. Those who can afford make a shift. The rest of the people, who cannot move, find it very difficult to avoid or to see houses being taken away from their owners, many of them your neighbors.

Three years ago, in 2004, the situation was still under control though it was far from okay. In Places like Desoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Mesquite, and Cedar Hill there were 561 cases of foreclosures in the month of August alone. But in August 2007, there are 863 cases of foreclosure in similar cities.

These vacant foreclosed houses make the neighborhood unappealing. The area deteriorates when there is junk mail, broken fences, unattended gardens etc. In such cases, homeowner’s associations have to take the responsibility of cleaning up the neighborhood. But the point is - how to keep the homeowners association going? City managers have to provide them with incentives to do so. Currently, they are made to pay twice, first to develop the general locality i.e. parking area, gardens, entry gate etc., and then again to keep the foreclosed area clean.

There are still some families who come to stay in areas which are hit badly by foreclosures. It’s a tradeoff that they take. They believe that their invested money will add up to their profits in spite of the empty foreclosed houses surrounding them. Plus they are assertive that the financial crisis leading to foreclosures will end soon. Otherwise, people will not be left with any other option, because if people keep on running from foreclosure, then eventually there will be no place left to live.