By Erin Meyer, Daily Reporter
emeyer@greenfieldreporter.com
GREENFIELD - With tall grass, naked windows and other tell-tale signs of vacancy, foreclosures in Hancock County are often easy to spot.
The growing number of foreclosures poses an unusual challenge to officials responsible for keeping properties in compliance with zoning codes, especially when it comes to overgrown yards in the summer. This year may well pose a significantly bigger challenge.
As more people who can no longer pay their mortgages give up or abandon their homes, the list of bank-owned properties grows. But Wells Fargo, Deutsche Bank and other big out-of-town lenders are not always good about keeping the grass cut or the property maintained.
Unoccupied, poorly kept properties can blight otherwise attractive neighborhoods and cause property values to decline. But what's worse, officials say, is some abandoned properties become a danger to the public when structural problems develop or when people with criminal intentions move in and set up shop.
"We don't want totally abandoned homes," said Mayor Brad DeReamer, reporting that Greenfield has 247 empty houses. "We are doing well right now, but that's the vision of horror that could happen in any city."
According to realitytrack.com, Greenfield has 55 homes currently in foreclosure. It already has 132 bank-owned homes, accord- ing to the site, an online marketing clearinghouse for distressed properties.
At the end of last year, data compiled by Market Graphics Report found 108 Hancock County properties in foreclosure and an additional 365 owned by banks.
The Indiana Department of Housing and Urban Development reports 103 foreclosed homes in Greenfield.
Foreclosures comprise only a small fraction of Greenfield's housing stock, which totals approximately 6,700 units.
But judging by the number of liens filed by the city in 2008, foreclosure rates are still on the rise.
Last year, 68 liens were filed in lieu of payment compared to only 17 in 2007. The city files liens against homeowners when it's trying to collect for services it renders to bring a home up to code.
The number of liens filed by the city is also a good indicator that repossession by lenders has increased.
"We expect them to take care of the property," said John Fitzwater, the city's zoning administrator. "We will pursue the responsible party for any work we do on their property."
DeReamer wants Greenfield to make its system more punitive for whoever owns neglected properties.
"I would like to see the city council investigate shortening the time frames and increasing the penalties so we can get people's attention," he said.
The city, for example, merely demands reimbursement for its own costs from a homeowner when it hires a contractor to mow an overgrown lawn. That doesn't begin to cover the staff time that must be spent ensuring compliance.
The state of California, which has seen vastly more homes go into foreclosure than Indiana, enacted laws intended to hold banks and mortgage companies accountable.
In some cities there, fines of up to $1,000 per day are issued against lenders when they fail to maintain foreclosures.
But not all banks are bad, said county zoning assistant Darla Smoak.
Unlike Greenfield, the county doesn't have resources to take matters into its own hands.
Officials watch and wait for problem properties to go through the foreclosure process and into the hands of new owners before they follow up.
Smoak is tracking a handful of properties. One on CR 650E is little more than a pile of burned rubble that remains from a house fire three years ago.
With trash heaped in mounds around the home, another foreclosure on East U.S. 40 in Charlottesville has long been a thorn in Smoak's side.
"Since Chase Bank has taken over, the yard has been cleaned up," she said.
Where some banks allow properties to fall into disrepair, Chase hires local contractors and real estate companies to maintain and try to resell them.
"Once the foreclosure occurs, we would like to get that property on the market as soon as possible and have a family living in there," Tom Kelly, a Chase spokesman, said. "It's best for the community, and it's best for Chase."
The process has long been standard procedure. But Kelly said the number of properties owned by the bank has increased dramatically as foreclosures mount.
"(Vacant homes) create a potential problem for the neighborhood and a potential problem for us because our loan goes into default," Kelly said.