Zombie Properties: 1,332,706 residential properties in the US are sitting vacant
(KMOX) – A new report shows there are 1,332,706 residential properties in the US that are sitting vacant as zombie properties and a county near St. Louis has one of the highest zombie-foreclosure rates in the country.
If you think you’re reading about a zombie apocalypse or some kind of night of the living dead report, let me stop you right here. A zombie foreclosure is when a homeowner moves out after receiving a notice of default, but the foreclosure gets canceled or isn’t completed. It means the house remains in the homeowner’s name, but they may not even know it, as it is essentially a dead property, growing decrepit over time.
Illinois has the fourth most zombie properties in the country, with 805, behind only New York (2,053) Ohio (939) and Florida (912). And St. Clair County, Illlinois owns the highest zombie-foreclosure rates among counties with at least 500 properties in the state, at 9%.
The latest data comes from ATTOM, the curator of the nation’s premier property database.
To make things even scarier, their experts believe as we approach Halloween there will be an increase in zombie properties.
More here…
Not just the foreclosure mess results in a zombie property. A sit down with my local tax collector a few years ago revealed that approx 10% of the properties in my small district are “zombiefied” due to unpaid property taxes, thanks to the last housing debacle, shoddy paperwork trail, titles being assigned to MERS or some other nebulous third party holding entity, and the little local government does not have the staff or resources to go digging disappeared property titles out of the foggy mist in order to file tax lien judgements, get the properties sold at tax sale, and back on the market! I think that the actual number of zombie properties…for ALL reasons…..is way, way, WAY higher!
One of the popular tax-reducing plans involves buying rentals and having them sit vacant. It is a huge write off. Just imagine, having so much money that you have to squat on rentals just to reduce your tax bill. The thing it….this is just a game to the people that do it. They could easily pay their full share of taxes and still have more money than they know what to do with. But hey…who are they to pass up an opportunity to stick it to their ‘lessers’.