Lower prices and an accelerated sales process may not be the
only appealing factors to purchasing a foreclosed home - buyers who
take out real
estate investor loans for these properties could be helping to
reduce crime rates in these communities.
When a home is foreclosed and its occupants move out, a vacuum
could open up that is difficult to fill if the property lingers
unoccupied for some time. In some communities, these vacant
properties are becoming homes to criminals and individuals seeking
temporary shelter.
According to The New York Times, one area of Queens exemplifies
this problem. Local law enforcement officials are not certain of
the exact level of crime that has increased as a direct result of
rising foreclosures, but relying on anecdotal evidence, they seem
to have reached a consensus about that connection.
"I just drove by a house we boarded up, and it's open again and
there are squatters living there," Queens councilman Leroy Comrie,
Jr. told the newspaper. "It fell into foreclosure because the
developer ran out of money."
Other community members reported that the neighborhood had
become occupied by drug users, gang members, prostitutes, thieves
stealing copper from abandoned properties and homeless
individuals.
While New York is responding to the problem locally, in nearby
Ohio and Michigan, 16 lawmakers have written a letter appealing to
President Barack Obama to direct federal funds to them to assist in
the destruction of properties that have been vacant for some time.
Presumably, local officials hope builders and buyers will be
interested in constructing new homes in their place.
One alternative to this approach might be for real estate
experts to seek investment property
mortgages for these properties. This way, if they are leery of
living in a community that they may consider unsafe, they could
still take out an investment property
loan to help refurbish the property and set the community on a
path toward revival.
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