Foreclosures leave Behind a Trail of Devastation in Cape Coral

 

Foreclosures are leaving behind a trail of devastation – a feast for the eyes of tourists and future investors. Prices are tumbling and people are not waiting to pick up bargains. But before that a lot of clearing up has to be done. Kristy Clifton is the youngest in the code enforcement team.

She needs help to clear the mess. Looking at the tell tale marks of disrupted lives she wonders what really took place. She said, “People can just up and leave, and it seems like they leave their whole lives behind. Army medals. Photo albums. Framed photos of children. Cribs. Toys. I don’t know if they don’t have anywhere to go or anywhere to put this stuff. But you’d think that pictures of your kids you’d take.”

The story behind this mess is that speculators were selling to others of their kind creating this ponzi scenario. The crash that followed read like a horror tale. By the close of 2007 the price of property in Cape Coral and adjoining Lee County had fallen down from $278,000 noted in 2005 to $215,000. In October 2009 it had tumbled to about $92,000.

The community’s expectations were followed by fear. In 2007 James W. Browder the superintendent of Lee County schools had negated plans to set up new seven schools. Towards the close of 2009 he was noting how a quarter of his elementary schools were sending home every week backpacks containing food for the pupils. He said, “One elementary school principal noticed parents going into schools with kids in the morning and sitting down in the cafeteria with them. Then they noticed parents eating breakfast off kids’ plates. And then they noticed parents taking scraps home.”

In Texas prosperity is measured by the cost of an oil barrel. In Cape Coral it was at a time the worth of a parcel of land that could be developed. Today it is all foreclosures and foreclosures. By 2007 the pace had become grim with there being 1,100 foreclosures per month. It was five times more than the previous year according to RealtyTrac. By the close of 2008 the speed had picked up further to a count of 2,000 per month.

There was respite during 2009 fall when the number had receded to 1,400 per month giving rise to expectations that the worst days were over. But simultaneously a new phrase began to make the rounds sending down shivers – ghost inventories. It meant lenders were intentionally holding back repossessed properties from the market to avoid further fall in prices.

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