The listings of foreclosed homes in several cities in Minnesota continued to grow unabated, resulting to more problems for the local governments, including falling home prices and values. Now, adding to the miseries brought about by the rising foreclosure rate is the abandoned houses becoming eyesores and health hazards for neighborhoods.
The Minnesota cities of Burnsville and Lakeville do not have the manpower needed to attend to abandoned houses. And as the flood of foreclosures remained unabated, more and more abandoned homes have become eyesores and blights in neighborhoods.
The worsening economic downturn has taken its toll on the finances of Dakota County and local government offices. They were forced to make some budget cuts, including streamlining the number of their staff. That is why they are unprepared to take on the role of caretaker for the growing number of foreclosure properties in their neighborhoods.
Industry experts said that the caring for abandoned, foreclosed properties is not profitable. In fact, the cities have to dig into their budgets to pay for the cost of preventing foreclosure houses from becoming eyesores in communities.
Burnsville property inspector Ron Anderson said that he is overwhelmed by the drastic increase in the number of foreclosure houses in the area. Early this year, the government of Burnsville issued an ordinance that required city home inspectors to handle all issues associated with foreclosure properties. The city promised to reimburse the costs of caring for the foreclosure houses by way of special assessments on the properties.
However, budget cuts forced the city to reduce the number of its staff, from two full-time employees to one inspector. And this resulted to an overwhelming workload. The same is true in Lakeville which currently employs one inspector.
According to industry experts, Lakeville has been relying on a monthly listings of foreclosed homes sales from the Dakota County Community Development Agency to keep abreast of foreclosure properties in the city.
Dakota County has been holding sheriff’s sales of all foreclosed properties. As of September, the county posted 1,349 properties on sheriff’s sales. In 2008, the total sheriff’s sales was 2,063, with the cities of Lakeville, Burnsville, Apple Valley and Eagan holding 300 foreclosures.
Generally, it is the responsibility of mortgage holders to take care of properties they have foreclosed on. However, the issue was muddled by the redemption period of six months in which time homeowners have the chance to recover their properties from listings of foreclosed homes.
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