Foreclosure Auction Draws Deal Seekers

Thousands Attend Massive Sell-Off

Emmanuel Warren was with his wife and eight children seeking a home with lots more room.

Franco Abbruzzetti was looking for a house for his son.

Carlos Amaya and his pregnant wife, Shardonna, had their eye on a five-bedroom in Bowie, but they lost out to a higher bidder.

It was a multi-house auction yesterday at Walter E. Washington Convention Center, fueled by the skyrocketing numbers of local foreclosures, and it fulfilled some hopes and deferred others, as more than 200 homes went on the block.

While tuxedo-clad auctioneer Mark Buleziuk chattered rapid-fire prices and the public address system blared the '80s hit "Living in America," several thousand people bid on ramblers, townhouses, condominiums, bungalows and McMansions in the District, Maryland and Virginia.

All the homes had been foreclosed on and were owned by banks trying to recoup some of their losses, according to Real Estate Disposition of Irvine, Calif., which ran the auction.

"It's clear by what's out there in the media that there is a high rate of foreclosure," said Mary Clare Quella, vice president and associate general counsel for the auction firm. "Lenders do have large portfolios in foreclosed homes."

But the tragedy of foreclosure presented a chance for others, she said.

"These are members of the community who recognize that they have an opportunity to get a real value on a property, help determine what that selling price is, rather than the local broker, and hopefully have a good investment in their first-time home," Quella said.

The auction continues today at the Baltimore Convention Center and tomorrow at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The first house on the block yesterday was a renovated three-bedroom, two-bath brick rowhouse with a porch on Quincy Place NE in the District.

The house had been previously valued at $435,000, the auction catalog said. The starting bid was $139,000.