Along the streets of Far Rockaway, many recently built two- and three-family town houses sit waiting for even one family to move in. Some have boarded-up windows, while others have clumps of garbage in driveways that have never seen a car. Desperate developers hoping to cover their bets — and stem their losses — tape up both For Rent and For Sale signs inside windows that face nearly deserted streets.Risky Loans Help Build Ghost Town of New Homes
City Councilman James Sanders Jr. talking with constituents in southeast Queens. Mr. Sanders said his district has been hit hard by a credit and foreclosure crisis.
The same blocks were once home to sprawling single-family houses with wraparound porches. But during the superheated real estate market of just a few years ago, longtime residents sold out to developers who rapidly demolished the old to build rows of plain vanilla town houses sold, it seemed, to anyone who could sign a mortgage application.
But as the market cooled and credit got tighter, many of the new homes sat empty. On a few blocks, developers have built nothing but plywood walls to hide the weed-choked lots after the old houses were torn down.
Photo from NY Times
5 comments:
Anyone that didn't see this coming was blind. Far Rock is and always has been a mess. After subprime, it'll only be worse.
It's not just far rock though, I was down by LIC over the weekend and it seemed like some of them new buildings were ready for occupancy with no one in or around them at all... And just think, they've already started on the next ugly skyscrapper down there... when that thing opens this time next year, will anyone be around who can afford or desire to live in it?
We're replacing old occupied affordable housing with new unaffordable, shoddy garbage that in some areas is being built and largely abandoned.
One can only wonder when someone will set these suckers on fire for the insurance money...
developers in a bind. :)
Despite all the BS hoopla of the Bush administration.....
we're about do for a very serious nationwide recession!
HUD will take them over and move in 3rd world
low income immigrants!
And our taxes will bail out the builders!
Jan 9th. 07 -- article in queens crapper about the new houses going on line. http://queenscrap.blogspot.com/2007/01/gentrifying-rockaways.html
Anybody know just how many houses were built and have they stopped development? I know they planned on thousands.
Also, devlelopers may have lost their shirts but you know somebody in this city made dough off the whole deal.
Rockaway is a disaster.
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