Bank Demolishes New Homes In Depressed Market

Chalk this story up as being one that can be found in the category, “if you think that you have problems, then take a look at this.”

In California, the housing market has seen some of the steepest price corrections since peaking in 2006. Over the past two to three years, some local markets have witnessed home prices falling by as much as 60% including in Victorville a southern California community located along Highway 15 north of San Bernadino.

Sixteen Homes Meet Their Fate

One out-of-state bank who owned sixteen partially finished or new homes located in a Victorville housing development recently took drastic action, choosing to demolish the homes instead of trying to sell them in a depressed market. Guaranty Bank of Austin (Texas) figured that it was cheaper to dismantle the homes than to pay someone to finish them.

A representative from the bank explained that only four of the homes were substantially complete with most only partially finished and exposed to the elements. The bank gained control over the homes through foreclosure this past December when the builder, Matthews Homes, lost ownership.

Would Cost More To Finish Than To Destroy

The bank’s move was a drastic one, but based on estimates that it would cost more than one million dollars to finish the project and that the Victorville housing market is still saturated with unsold homes, the alternative would have been a costly one. Besides, with squatters and vandals damaging the properties and city officials levying daily fines, then that move seems to be logically based.

Most of the appliances in the homes had been stripped out with some of the wood slated to be ground up and used for landscaping. The remaining lumber will be resold, likely to find their way into new homes being built in Mexico.

Average home prices in Victorville once topped $600,000, but have since fallen back to $265,990 according to DataQuick, a research firm. Federal regulators have been pressuring Guaranty to dispose of its foreclosed properties, citing what they said are its “unsafe and unsound banking practices.” To that end, Guaranty now has sixteen fewer homes to worry about.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Also Read — When Government Comes to the Aid of Big Business

49 States In 9 Days For Charity

I’ve been entertaining thoughts of getting in my car and heading to California to arrive in time for the press days for the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show.  If I were to leave Raleigh, NC during the last week of November, I’d be at the L.A. Convention Center on December 1st, just in time for the preview which begins the following day.

Then again, I’ve never driven more than one thousand miles in any one direction — six thousand miles round-trip would be a real chore!

Taking America By Storm!

Well, my dream will have to wait until I have the time to make such a trip as well as the right kind of car to drive. Then again, having an older set of wheels isn’t stopping Dave Staub from making the most amazing cross-country trip I’ve ever heard of, a venture where he plans to touch 49 states and one Canadian province in just 9 days and in a 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster no less!

Staub’s trip will take him from his native California on a circuitous trip that will head south and east to Florida then up the east coast to Maine before heading across the northern fringes of the country, coming to an end in Alaska.  He’ll be driving about 9800 miles in just 9 days, an absolutely wearisome trip!

Helping Ronald McDonald House Charities

But, Staub isn’t hitting the road just for pleasure. An avid automotive enthusiast, Staub is using his trip as a way to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House in Palo Alto, California. Ronald McDonald House Charities was founded by the hamburger chain and whose mission “is to create, find and support programs that directly improve the health and well being of children.”

Among the many benefits offered by the Ronald McDonald House is temporary housing for families whose children are being cared for by a local medical facility. Oftentimes, children must be treated many miles away from home if they have a life threatening illness. By providing housing and other services a Ronald McDonald House removes a cost prohibitive burden off the backs of impacted families.

Staub won’t be setting out on his journey until September 8th, which gives him some time to raise the $100,000 he wants to give to the Ronald McDonald House through donations which are being received through his site or by sending a check directly to the organization. Once he is on the road, you can follow Staub’s progress online as well as track the amount of money raised for the charity.

For additional information visit 49in9.com and take a look at the following video which tells what Staub is planning to do: