America's Foreclosure Ghost Towns -- Photos From HuffPost Readers

Since 2007, news of the foreclosure crisis has been nearly constant. Recently, the at-times bombarding reports of unscrupulous banks, unfair foreclosure proceedings and expected increases in foreclosures make it easy to forget what all this bad news actually means: real families are being forced to abandon their homes.

The housing crisis has been well documented by professional photographers in foreclosure hot spots like Detroit and Las Vegas. But is there evidence of it elsewhere? Two weeks ago the Huffington Post asked people across the country to send in photos of homes abandoned by foreclosure in their own neighborhoods.

Within minutes after posting, responses from across the country came pouring in. An empty swimming pool in Lancaster, CA, a factory with smashed in windows in Connecticut, even a sunken boat in Florida, all drove home the sad reality that the foreclosure crisis isn't just something we read about online or see on TV: it's happening to real people in real communities throughout the country.

Below are some of the most disturbing images of the foreclosure crisis from the very neighborhoods of Huffington Post readers.

 

Is the foreclosure crisis affecting your neighborhood or city? Send us your best photos and they'll be included in this and other HuffPost galleries!

Photos From America's Foreclosure Ghost Towns

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Chicago- Englewood Neighborhood

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ak4931:
Many of Chicago's working class neighborhoods have become ghost towns as a result of banks' predatory loans and foreclosures coupled with city and state governments' refusal to enact meaningful legislation to combat the housing crisis. These vacant buildings left behind after foreclosure attract crime and are an eyesore for residents of the once vibrant Englewood community.

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ak4931:
Many of Chicago's working class neighborhoods have become ghost towns as a result of banks' predatory loans and foreclosures coupled with city and state governments' refusal to enact meaningful legislation to combat the housing crisis. These vacant buildings left behind after foreclosure attract crime and are an eyesore for residents of the once vibrant Englewood community.

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Comments

[AcademicFreedom]

10:36 AM on 04/26/2011

Fannie and Freddie are to blame for all of this; whoops, I almost forgot the CRA.

[Badgirl]

07:24 PM on 04/25/2011

The cast of Jersey Shore are the only people with any money to save us.

[landskroon]

08:09 AM on 04/25/2011

I have a 75 year old book with pictures of abandoned USA cities. It was from the results of the ending Goldrush, the one where men were digging with hands and spades till there were no more nuggets. This second goldrush was done by people ( Bankers) that have never been doing a good honest job.

[Kenz300]

02:13 PM on 04/23/2011

Too many homes and too few buyers.

Why do builders keep building more new homes adding to the inventory?

If the builders stopped building for 6 months maybe they could drive down the inventory enough to stabilize home prices.

To keep their employees working they should rehab some existing homes instead. Many buyers are scared away from these homes but would be buying if they we fixed up by a reputable builder.

[Christopher Nicoll]

01:07 PM on 04/24/2011

As a former builder.....ROTFLMAO

[TPKTP]

04:11 PM on 04/22/2011

The NEW OZ

[robert horwitz]

05:44 PM on 04/20/2011

Welcome to America 2.0. These structures are not just wood and broken glass and boarded up doors and windows. These abandoned structures were once homes. These once homes were where people hoped and lived and tried to give their kids a better life. That all ended in a sea of uncontrolled and reckless greed brought on by people who never believe that they have enough and knew exactly what they were doing even though they all stand up raise their right hands and swear no one could see it coming. The people who were watching them and supposed to regulate then for their own selfish reasons looked the other way. Do you think its over? Think again. This is just the beginning. As this continues so do the people who really caused this problem. Now they are trying to pick us all up by our ankles and shake out what change we have not only left in our pockets now but anything we may have in the future.

[Sundialsvc4]

11:38 AM on 04/19/2011

A rather forgettable collection of photos, unfortunately...

What now needs to happen (and of course, what now is being prevented by billions of dollars' worth of bribes and graft) is an honest, ruthless, investigative accounting of exactly what IS the financial position of these so-called mortgage holders.

(1) Trace backward from every "mortgage backed" debt instrument to the "mortgage" which, by definition, MUST correspond to it. If there is no such 1:1 correspondence (and we damn well know that there is not...) then this is a Fraudulent Security, and the peddling of that security is a Felony. Start arresting people and seizing companies.

(2) For every mortgage note that is held, determine how many mortgage notes have been attached to the properties. There can be only one "first mortgage," but I am quite sure that we'll find hundreds of electronic documents with the same address. Felony. Start arresting more people.

(3) Actually drive through the neighborhoods and determine whether or not the physical address exists, whether it has a house on it, and whether that house corresponds to the description. If not: Felony.

(4) Correlate the mortgage documents with the public courthouse records. Felony.

(5) In light of the TRUTH, as you have now been able to determine it, examine the financial state of the BANK. Seize.

(6) Since it is utterly impossible to assess a company that is "involved in everything," reimpose Glass-Steagall. What it mandates, is the only thing that can possibly work.

[Being Middle Class]

04:02 PM on 04/20/2011

So true. F&F

[WashingtonDCsucks]

10:17 AM on 04/22/2011

You forget we do not have a justice system in the USA, we have a for profit prison system.
There isn't a judge in the USA that would prosecute a banker, slimebag criminals don't prosecute other slimebag criminals, they protect them.

[Jimserac]

06:43 AM on 04/19/2011

THIS is what happens when profiteering is allowed to replace profit, when special interests and lobbyism replace legislation, when wild out of control bought and paid for legislators in our governement replace representation, when wall street is allowed to replace main street as the central principle governing and influencing our country, just look at the results and then remember this next time some idiot talks about the "financial crisis", the need for bank bailouts the need to continue some absurd foreign war to nowhere, the demand that WE "sacrifice" for THEIR benefit while continuing to follow their unsound ideas which amount to nothing more than hooray for us and the hell with you.

I don't agree with everything he says but by all means view some of Michael Moore's documentaries, "Sicko" and especially "Capitalsim, A Love Story". It was from one of Moore's letters and NOT the newsmedia, that I first learned of the wholesale abandonment of entire areas of cities in Michigan. What a disgrace.

[reddy52]

07:25 PM on 04/18/2011

It's a good thing in the long run that the banks are removing people from their homes, but they aren't going far enough. Every house that isn't close enough to the city center should be foreclosed. After everybody is removed, suburbia can be demolished, the driveways and neighborhood roads torn up, and the area returned to nature. This failed experiment can finally come to an end.

The state can build apartments in urban centers for people to live in.

[macrocosm]

01:39 AM on 04/20/2011

What you say and how you say it is VERY creepy.

[reddy52]

01:54 PM on 04/20/2011

What? How is that?

[Being Middle Class]

04:04 PM on 04/20/2011

Sarcasm, right?

[StopMakingSense2]

05:40 PM on 04/18/2011

Isn't that republican prosperity great! Bring on more tax cuts, deficits, deregulation, and mismanagement on every level! Quick! America still has a pulse! Time for the death blow! Then we can be the worlds estate sale before we claim our banana republic status.. Think of all those buying opportunities for the top 2% club. Now they can have 98% of the USA's wealth to go with the 2% status for a song.. Republican nirvana is within reach!

[4TJefferson]

09:33 PM on 04/18/2011

Somebody needs to quickly clue in this new "Aristocracy" that the more recent Abolished Monarchy's in History ended badly... for the Monarchs.

[Jimserac]

06:33 AM on 04/19/2011

I'll mention the name of one country which should strike fear into the heart of plutocrats, because of what happened there and will happen elsewhere, strike fear into the hearts of neo-CON supporters and minions as well as pseudo reform democrats and anyone who dares attempt to continue to foist the charade of "free" trade, tax cuts for the wealthy as beneficial, absurd foreign wars and reduction of taxes to the point of economy ruination......
EGYPT.

[mjtaylor22]

05:26 PM on 04/18/2011

this is the world the republican policies created..............

[chucky222]

11:14 AM on 04/22/2011

Isn't Obama a Democrat?

[Martha Fair]

06:19 AM on 04/25/2011

His decisions are ineffective due to the RepubliBilly appointed Supreme Court Monopoly. There is nothing he can do now, as it is too late. The Republican agenda has made a ruin and a shambles of our once beautiful country. Nothing but poverty and despair will flourish here now as most of the rich will now leave for greener pastures and a new economy to exploit. They are done with this one now.

[laymancanuck]

03:33 PM on 04/18/2011

I think the real story is another example of corporations off loading costs on to the tax payers.At some point these homes had a mortgage on them, they went into foreclosure, the mortgage holder should be billed with an abandonment fee to pay to have the house demolished.

[Martha Fair]

06:22 AM on 04/25/2011

One problem.....nobody knows who the mortgage holders are. The mtg notes have been sold and resold so many times that it is next to impossible to find out who really owns them. Selling something that is already sold is illegal and should be prosecuted. You can't buy a car without giving title to it, yet this is exactly what these crooks have been able to do. This is what the de-regulation agenda has led to...fraud, corrpution and miserly.

[Fetus]

03:28 PM on 04/18/2011

I've been in the place in the Bay Area in photo 20 of 21 (listed as Northern California). It is listed by the bank who foreclosed on it for $ 635000 which is cheap up there but the other rooms aren't as nice so that picture is a little misleading.

[mambolam]

02:52 PM on 04/18/2011

The answer to this problem lies within the city and county and state codes and ordinances and as such, with the governing bodies within them. For each one of these properties, there is a legal titleholder, most probably a bank or investor. If codes and ordinances were enforced against the titleholder, these properties would not be in the condition they are in. The problem therefore must be corruption even within the ranks of local government and enforcement bodies. Enforcement of the law should not only fall upon the citizenry, it must also fall upon the business entity that has ownership share in the property. Maybe we peons should demand our officials speak with their golfing buddies next time they’re on the course together, to clean up their act. How much are they profiting or receiving perks for turning a blind eye anyway? Make them, the officials and titleholders, pay through the nose if correction is not made. Within each mortgage contract, there are property condition clauses. If a property is not within reasonable condition, petition the holder of said mortgage for correction. Action on these properties will only come from those willing to take a stand. It is within the authority and duty of local government to take necessary action to reclaim the communities for which we pay hard earned tax money to maintain, otherwise, they are just another rubber stamp on the sad state of affairs plaguing this nation. As a bonus, jobs would be created. Let's try it!

[Linda Rider]

11:11 PM on 04/20/2011

70% of these properties were fraudulently foreclosed upon; maybe the neighborhood should collectively litigate against the idiot servicer and legal mill who left their neighborhood holding the bag-there are damages and remedies. The city and county are left holding the bag too-they are defrauded of taxes and fees. It is time to pay up Wall Street.

[mambolam]

02:23 PM on 04/21/2011

Agreed. I am not suggesting that my approach is the singular answer, just part of it. The people of this nation must come together, just as we do after natural disasters, bombings, assassinations, etc. to put the greedy thieves that profited on these schemes before the criminal court system. As long as we continue to allow ourselves to be their door mats, we will be their doormats.

[Susan Shaffer]

08:14 PM on 04/24/2011

i was a commercial property owner that tried to get our area redeveloped. i spoke with the city to see if something could be done since the buildings looked run down and thus trade did not come our way.
the town planner said that they could insist on the properties being fixed for the minor violations and that the costs could make them think that redevelopment might be a better option.
at the end of the day the city can fine anyone to get the buildings fixed but if you cannot afford to fix them then it is cheaper to pay the fine.

[48thGuy]

09:17 AM on 04/18/2011

Englewood, vibrant?????...Exactly what was this writer smoking?