Area Suburbs See Rise in Foreclosures

Homes that go into foreclosure often linger in limbo as slow-moving bank bureaucracies first handle the paperwork on the transaction before taking responsibility for the property itself. Often a house is left unattended, perhaps vacant, for six months or more, said Lance Young, a Washington area foreclosure specialist.

"The foreclosure is almost always going to be the worst-looking house on the street," he said. "They sort of give up on the house, and it shows. It's not in line with other houses where there is obvious pride of ownership. If they have a few dollars, they don't spend it fixing the roof but keeping the mortgage up. Generally, the owners have had financial difficulties for some time."

The Price of Abandonment

Home abandonment is not uncommon in foreclosures, because if people paid more for a house than it is now worth, or if they made only a small down payment, they can find themselves with a mortgage higher than the value of the home, making it almost impossible to sell at a profit or even to break even on the transaction expenses.

The grass is three feet high now at a foreclosed townhouse on New Braddock Road in Centreville, a property surrounded by neatly maintained homes with rose bushes in their yards. Dead flowers drooped in untended planters; wind-borne trash had gathered at the front door.

For Joy Loesel, a mother of two who owns a townhouse a few doors away, this foreclosure, after others nearby, was the final straw, and she and her husband decided to sell.

"We thought we would stay, but then there was a forced sale here and a forced sale there," she said. "It's not a good community if everything is foreclosed. I can't wait to get out."

Shadi Benze, who lives in the well-manicured Hadley Farms subdivision near Olney, is equally frustrated by a deteriorating property next door to her single-family home. It was owned by a paving contractor married to a school secretary, and the family abruptly moved away one morning without saying good-bye, leaving the yard untended and construction materials in piles in the back yard. A for-sale sign has been in the front yard for months, and public records indicate the house is going into foreclosure.

"It's disgusting," Benze said. "It would take 30 minutes to clean it up. I say, why keep this junk if they are trying to sell the house?"

Neighbors sometimes end up taking matters into their own hands. One financially struggling single mother who lived in a townhouse in Centreville was cited repeatedly by the homeowners association for failing to paint her home and repair a broken screen. One day in March, she disappeared after telling neighbors Velma Powell and her husband John that she was moving back to her home country because she couldn't afford to live in Centreville. John Powell has been mowing her lawn and tending her yard ever since.

"It's like they are missing in action or something," Velma Powell said.

Frequently, homes entering foreclosure have been converted into rentals as owners try to find a way to help cover the mortgage. That is a good option for some owners, but in the worst cases, former family homes are turned into transient lodging.

Five unrelated people are living in a house facing foreclosure in Manassas. One of the tenants, Cristian Mendes, from El Salvador, said that the owner, who lives in the house, is losing it to the bank because his boarders have lost their construction jobs and can no longer pay rent.

"I've been here four months, but I'm looking for another place to go -- I have to," Mendes said in Spanish. "I'll be on the road."

The door to the front of the house was propped open with a rope attached to the front railing to signify it would accept anyone passing by who wanted to rent a room. Tenants wandering in off the streets have plenty of options in Manassas: At the Global Foods grocery nearby, there were more than 35 handwritten fliers, most in Spanish, offering rooms to rent in homes.

"It's creating a whole subculture of boarding rooms," said Jose Luis Semidey, a Tysons Corner mortgage broker and real estate agent.

The Senate Banking Committee has been told that 2.2 million families nationwide face foreclosure as a result of loans they can't pay. Many home repossessions are expected to occur within the next two years as attractive low-interest "teaser" rates expire and mortgages adjust to reflect higher payments.

"Everybody in the industry knew what was coming when you start loosening the criteria for making loans, allowing anybody to get a loan for anything," said Beau Brincefield, an Alexandria real estate lawyer. "Sooner or later, the chickens come home to roost."