Limbo Houses

They are the visible reminders of the mortgage mess that triggered our current recession; houses that sit empty without even a “For Sale” in the yard. We have at least two of them in my neighborhood. I call them limbo houses because they truly are in limbo. They haven’t been foreclosed on though the owners have long since defaulted on the mortgage. No one takes care of them. There is no key box on the door because the doors aren’t even locked. I walked through it this morning. Apparently no one is paying the utility bills either because the power was turned off. Limbo houses exist in almost every community in Howard County.

This one has been empty for over two years. It is only three years old. Three years ago this townhome and others like it were commanding prices of over a half million dollars. It is hard to tell what it is worth today because each day it remains in this limbo state its value decreases.

Update: 

The Washington Post carried a front page story about this problem in today’s paper. You can read Dina ElBoghdady’s article here.