Half-Filled Developments - "Advertisement for a Failing Housing Market"

From KCRA:

A new Centex Homes development in Rancho Cordova is in limbo because of a dreary housing market, the developer confirmed Thursday. The 13 homes currently under construction in the Cypress at Kavala Ranch development will be finished, but none of the other lots will be developed for now.

From Bloomberg:

When Quinn Cuthbertson looks around his new neighborhood in El Dorado Hills, California, he sees rows of empty homes and barren hillsides. A promised new school and a clubhouse haven't materialized. Cuthbertson paid $460,000 for a four-bedroom house in this northern California town named for the mythical golden city. He now suspects his neighbor spent $45,000 less. Nearby, 87 of 98 Toll Brothers Inc. home sites are undeveloped.
...
"Half-filled developments are an advertisement for a failing housing market," said Retsinas, a former assistant secretary for housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. "It also has a spillover effect on the surrounding community."
...
Brent Sease, who bought a five-bedroom home built by Miami-based Lennar in El Dorado Hills, said a park and school that were supposed to be constructed are at least two years from being completed. Across the street, red tags that say "Available" are pasted on two houses. "That's the thing I'm concerned about," said Sease, a software manager with three daughters. "It's going to be a while before they put all that in, because they're not selling homes."

From Folsom Telegraph:

Quick, where’s the foreclosure rate higher – upper-middle class Folsom or low-upper class El Dorado Hills?

It’s higher in suave El Dorado Hills, significantly higher – by 50 percent...That might reflect the fact that EDH housing prices tend to outstrip income more than they do in Folsom, according to Money Magazine. El Dorado Hills’s median income of $116,406 amounts to 17 percent of the median home price of $672,335. Folsom’s $94,180 median income accounts for 19 percent of the city’s $490,000 median home price.

From KCRA:

Placer County SPCS animal shelter leader Leilani Vierra said she has 20 animals in her shelter as a result of people suffering from foreclosures, and the numbers are growing...Now we are seeing an animal a day at our shelter, if not more, as a result of people losing their home," Vierra said.

Wells Fargo labels Sacramento area counties as "severely distressed markets" (via Blown Mortgage).

From the Wall Street Journal:

Sgt. First Class Nicklaus Skaggs is among those looking to walk away. Mr. Skaggs bought his home in April 2005 shortly after returning to California from a one-year tour of duty in Baghdad. The $455,000 three-bedroom home he and his wife purchased in Vacaville, about one hour northeast of San Francisco, is worth an estimated $285,000 today, well below the $453,000 he owes on his mortgage. The monthly mortgage payment, which jumped after its interest rate increased, is now $4,000, up from $2,980 when he bought the house.

Mr. Skaggs expects to be redeployed to Iraq again later this year. But he can't sell his home, since there are few buyers, and he can't refinance because lenders require a large down payment he doesn't have. Now, the 18-year Army veteran has decided to walk away from his mortgage. He hopes in a few years lenders see his decision as a unique situation created by the housing meltdown. "I don't think that house is going to recover in value any time soon," said the 40-year-old. "I'd just be throwing the money away."

A rise in the number of people choosing to default on their mortgages would represent a significant departure from past behavior of American homeowners, who during past housing downturns tended to walk away only as a last resort....What's different now, analysts and economists say, is that home prices have fallen so far so quickly that some homeowners in weak markets are concluding that house prices won't recover anytime soon, and therefore they are throwing good money after bad.

From KCRA:

Doug Heisch works for the Baldwin Company in Sacramento, an auto repossession agency...Heisch said the last four months have been quite a bit busier than normal. Owner Mike Baldwin's seen a 15 to 20 percent increase in repossessions this past year. Baldwin said it's obviously the downturn in the housing market, construction trade, real estate, loans, mortgages that they are seeing borrowers and consumers falling victim to repossessions.

From the Sacramento Business Journal:

Budget problems mean the city of Sacramento is "facing elimination of approximately 500 positions" in the coming year, according to a report to the City Council released Friday, or nearly one out of every 10 city jobs.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento unemployment rose to its highest level in more than a decade...Sacramento-area unemployment rose a half-point to 6.4 percent, the state's Employment Development Department reported Friday.