Taxpayers Spending $40 Million Per Year To Mow Lawns Of Foreclosed Houses

The foreclosure crisis is costing you money.

How much, exactly, depends on a number of factors -- whether you own a house, what your property is worth -- but if you pay taxes in America, you're definitely putting up some cash no matter what.

That's because the government owns almost 200,000 vacant houses, and it needs to keep them looking presentable if they have any chance of selling the homes. That means painting, yard work and general upkeep -- all costs covered with tax dollars.

As unwelcome as these expenses might be, the alternative -- letting those vacant properties fall into disrepair -- is arguably even worse. A house with peeling paint and uncut grass is a house that's less likely to get sold. In the meantime, the longer that house stands empty and decrepit, the more damage it does to neighboring property values.

Yet this kind of maintenance work costs money, specifically $557 million last year, according to a recent segment on ABC News. In the coming year, ABC reports, American taxpayers will spend more than $40 million just to keep the lawns mowed at these addresses.

And at the national level, those vacant homes don't do anybody any favors. Right now, there's an excess of empty houses on the market and a shortage of people looking to buy them. That's a recipe for depressed housing prices, which in turn means low homeowner equity, an over-crowded rental market and a national economy without very much momentum.

ABC's report focuses on houses under the care of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage enterprises taken over by the federal government in 2008. But the vacancy problem is much bigger than those 200,000 or so houses, with some estimates put the number of vacant properties as high as 10 million. And the taxpayer burden goes well beyond Fannie and Freddie's inventories.

In many cases, local and municipal governments have to take responsibility for maintaining or bulldozing vacant properties -- an expensive pastime that's costing cities millions at a time when budgets are already stretched to the breaking point.

Comments

[TruelyFedUp]

07:31 PM on 04/12/2012

That $40 million a year would go a long way to equipping free, self sustaining eco villages for unemployed vets, families with children that are homeless, students with no jobs but $100k of student debt. There should be hundreds of such villages throughout the country for any American in need.

The Chinese Communist Party is the majority owner of Sinomach, so the 10,000 to 30,000 acre "self-sustaining city" that is being planned would essentially belong to the Chinese government. The planned "self-sustaining city" in Idaho would include manufacturing facilities, warehouses, retail centers and large numbers of homes for Chinese workers. Basically it would be a slice of communist China dropped right into the middle of the United States.

According to the Idaho Statesman, the idea would be to build a self-contained city with all services included. It would be modeled after the "special economic zones" that currently exist in China.

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/china-wants-to-construct-a-50-square-mile-self-sustaining-city-south-of-boise-idaho

[MSROADKILL612]

03:32 AM on 04/12/2012

so for 200, thousand houses - thats $20 per lawn & $5500 per house to keep them respectable

am skeptical of both numbers

this is unbelievable

houses are shelter - not gambling chips for foolish punters & in it up to their necks conspiritorial local govtS only interesting in fluffing up the taxable values of r/e

many after the war here in oz, bought a block, built a garage & lived rough or lived in a trailer, built a functional, simple home

no or little mortgage

try that today - no way u r allowed - u must enslave uself to a bank or u may deflate adjacent property prices. Why is that my problem?

we are a free society who can be told how long our lawn can be!!!

[ResearchtheFacts]

11:30 PM on 04/11/2012

Every responsible homeowner, refinancing at historically low rates...sounds like a used car salesman peddling lemons. Sure I'm less than 85% of my loan on a 30 year fixed and I want to start the clock all over again, plus pay bank fees to refi and I want that rolled into the cost of the new loan that will save me $50 to $100 a year which will by the way take me five years to rolled down the clock to where I am today. Yeah, works for me. That is a scenario of how insane the idea is to think responsible and stupid goes hand and hand, oh and don't forget homeowner.

[EdCorner]

10:18 PM on 04/11/2012

The head of the morally bankrupt FHFA, Ed DeMarco, needs to start writing down principles to save the taxpayers money. Write them down or get out of the way of recovery you dunderheadedgreedyslob.

[JoAnn Kennedy]

07:27 PM on 04/11/2012

I guess that Home Loan Modification program worked well. You see you banksters, and Fannie and Freedie & gynormous inept morons in government if you had forced and guareenteed a loan mod or re-fi to everyone (cause bailouts were taxpayer's monies anyway) people would be in their homes, paying a reduced monthly payment, and mowing their lawns, paying taxes, fixing broken things, DC you went with the banks poor move and now the concidences are in full view.

[Under Fed yet Fed Up]

06:05 PM on 04/11/2012

Just one more reason why the government should not be involved in mortgages.

[Imissgeorgew]

04:48 PM on 04/11/2012

They should just hire goats. Those crazy animals will eat the sh&# out of the grass and it won't cost 1 penny!

[Brian1111]

02:28 PM on 04/11/2012

I have a friend that used to get paid $30-$40 per yard by the government to keep it mowed. Sad part....Most of the lawns were so small that he said he didn't even need a lawnmower. Took on average about 5 minutes per yard to weed whack

[a w young]

06:24 PM on 04/14/2012

No business is going to go and do contract work for somebody for 5 bucks or whatever. What do you expect?

[fortressfountain]

01:08 PM on 04/11/2012

The people cannot have anything for themselve and are forced to pay high costs for everything just so the corporations and banks make out.
I know someone who made an offer on a home and 6 months later saw it advertised as an auction sale. She called the bank and said "How can you put a home up for auction, I made an offer on?"
Obviously the extra money involved and the 6 months of the taxpayer picking up the tab for taxes and such meant nothing to the bank. What the heck, they get their money.

[cajnjewel]

01:05 PM on 04/11/2012

Sooooo why don't they make the other mortgage companies pay small fees to create a pool to cover the cost of the upkeep? I guess that would be too easy. They would rather tax us to death!! In all honesty, I don't think anybody knows just where our tax dollars go.