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Luxury Foreclosures
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But in 2006, homes values stopped rising. The housing bubble was deflating. When interest on Thai's adjustable-rate mortgages jumped as much as 11 percent, he took the equity out of the homes to pay the deficit and keep his investments alive.
"I hang on and I say, 'Okay, bad time. When it's over I can sell it back,' " he said.
The market never improved. Builders lowered the prices on new homes, making it impossible to sell back his investments to break even. In just six months, Thai spent his entire savings. The bank barred all his short sale attempts.
As the mortgage crisis unraveled, so did his marriage. Today, Thai is homeless and nearly bankrupt. For the past three months, he's been staying with friends and applying for engineering jobs. So far, no luck.
"This time last year," Thai said, "I was happy."
But not all troubled investors and homeowners are as candid about foreclosures as Thai is. They're embarrassed. They've fled town. They especially don't want their former neighbors and business clients to know they've fallen on hard times.
After six years of record-shattering growth and building boom, Loudoun County faced one of the region's steepest declines in home prices last year. The median price of single-family houses and townhouses sold last year was $492,000, down 8 percent from $535,000 in 2006, according to a Washington Post analysis.
"A lot of people on the market with McMansions for sale ended up foreclosing them," said Danilo Bogdanovic, an agent with Market Advantage Real Estate and Arko's co-blogger. "They found it easier to walk away."
Real estate agents said this was only the beginning for luxury home foreclosures.
"We're going to be back to the prices we were at 15 years ago," said Bill Milletary, an agent with Century 21 Redwood Realty.
As for Magazine, after he signed the contract on the foreclosed Leesburg house, he realized there were several problems with the property, such as irrigation leaks and its noisy location.
"I acted quickly because I was so excited about the price," he said.
He reconsidered and backed out.
But he found other good prices. Now he has closed on a house in the Raspberry Falls development in Leesburg. This one was not a foreclosure.
