Feb. 3, 2008 If you're interested in yet another look-at-how-bleak-the-housing-market-is submission, I'd like to relate what's going on in some of the new housing developments here in Fresno, CA. In particular, Rexford Homes (in the northwest part of the city) has essentially shut down its building activity in this part of town. My wife and I rented a four year-old home in this development for about a year (from August 2006 until September 2007). Right around the corner were a large number of homes in the process of being built. For the entire year that we lived in that neighborhood I saw no building activity whatsoever. The pictures that I have included represent the EXACT condition of these homes 18 months ago. I took these pictures this morning. As you can see, the homes are in various stages of completion. Many have had their windows broken by vandals, and many of the brand new air conditioning units have been stolen. I took the liberty of walking through some of the open half-completed homes a while ago and noticed that many of them had their front doors and interior walls kicked in, the rear sliding glass doors shattered with large rocks and the counter tile smashed to pieces. I have often wondered what this builder must be thinking. He hasn't sold a house in this phase of the development in almost two years. The lady at the sales office casually mentioned that he also has developments in Las Vegas, San Diego and Florida three of the most vulnerable areas in the country with regard to price drops and inventory gluts. It does seem like a tragic waste of materials and land row upon row of half-finished homes with nobody to live in them. It's a vicious cycle. The longer that these homes (and others like them) remain exposed to the elements and vandals, the less likely someone is to buy them at anything but drastically reduced prices. This would, of course, undermine the values of existing homes in the area and incur the resentment of those who paid inflated prices three and four years ago. Additionally, who wants to be the first person to buy a home in this deserted phase when to the left and to the right of you would be empty homes with weeds and trash in the front yard, graffitied walls and broken windows? My wife and I actually considered making an offer on one of these houses but decided against it for the simple reason that we could not guarantee that the neighborhood would ever be anything than what it is today: empty and decaying. I'm an avid fan of your website and wanted to contribute an example of what is becoming emblematic of the housing woes here in CA. Kenneth S. Fresno, CA Incidentally, my wife and I moved out of this neighborhood into a house that we bought here in Fresno. The house we purchased was a bank-owned foreclosure that had been on the market (vacant and neglected) for 8 months. The bank originally listed the home in January of 2007 for $399,000. We ended up buying it for $260,000 in September of last year - a 35% drop.
