Sunday Focus: Abandoned Forclosures

 

   Sometimes a foreclosed house is abandoned by the owners...sending the keys to the lenders or just leaving.
     And one Alabama Metro area is in the top 10 for the largest percentage---30.6%-- of foreclosed homes that have been abandoned:

4. Birmingham-Hoover, Ala.
> Pct. foreclosures vacated: 30.6%
> Total vacated homes: 375
> Median home price: $155,000 (44th highest)
The Birmingham area was not hit as hard during much of the recession as the rest of the United States. Home prices fell by just 8.8% between late 2007 and late 2012, well below the 20.8% decline nationwide in that time. In the more recent years, Birmingham's housing market reversed its trend. Between late 2009 and late 2012, the area's home prices dropped 5.5%, while nationwide home prices fell by just 0.6%. Many homeowners likely made the choice to vacate quickly once the foreclosure process had begun. During the first quarter of 2013, it took just 186 days, on average, to foreclose a home in Alabama, less than the average time required in all but four other states.

Read the story in USA Today.