  Upinottawa Member Username: Upinottawa Post Number: 657 Registered: 09-2005 |
Of course, the situations are a bit different.... http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061201/BIZ03/612010399 Stalled subdivisions leave Metro homeowners on barren blocks home alone Robert Snell  | The Detroit News / The Detroit News TAYLOR -- It would be easy for Christopher Lightfoot to erase the eyesore. The carpenter figures parking his Ford E150 van on the front lawn would obscure the abandoned condominium complex across Beech Daly, the one with waterproof-wrap rippling in the wind and a half-finished fieldstone chimney. But it wouldn't fix the problem. Stalled subdivisions are becoming an increasing part of the landscape across Metro Detroit amid a slumping housing market for single-family homes and condominiums, threatening increases in property values and quality of life for neighbors. As builders such as Neumann Homes auction new houses and struggle with plots that aren't selling, residents are coping with empty lots and blight. They cope too with envy, as neighboring homes built after the housing-market bubble burst are selling for much less. "It's probably been the worst year I've ever seen in my life," said Anthony Sorrentino of Clinton Township-based Sorrentino Development. "It's like the whole world completely stopped." New home construction has fallen 44.3 percent across the region compared to last year as customers are wary or unable to sell their current homes. One builder called it the worst market he's ever seen and conditions are triggering construction delays and, in some cases, leaving brand new homes next to empty lots and barren blocks. Some neighbors are retaliating. In Pontiac, residents of the Stonegate Pointe subdivision, which includes condos and single-family houses, are mulling a lawsuit against the developer for, among other reasons, failing to finish the project. In Taylor, where about 13 subdivisions are in development, residents are targeting for recall elected officials who oppose a temporary construction ban. In some half-finished subs where neighbors aren't moving in, blight is. Vandals and thieves have smashed windows and stripped copper pipes from the abandoned Taylor Meadows condominiums across from the house where Lightfoot lives. "Ain't nobody there," Lightfoot, 22, said. That's the problem, neighbors and developers agree. Single-family home and condo construction has slowed as material costs have risen and buyers have grown reluctant to buy in this economy, experts said. "Buyers out there are fewer and farther between," said James Babcock, president of the Building Industry Association of Southeastern Michigan. There are pockets of success, however. SouthTown, a condominium development in Southgate, has sold 50 units since May and there have been 60 sales at Mill River in Lyon Township during the same time frame, Babcock said. He credited location and the style of units for the success. In Chesterfield Township, Seaton Place is prepped. Sites staked, roads paved and ready for what eventually would be 18 condo buildings. After a year, only two multi-unit complexes have been built. And just two units have sold, forcing Sorrentino to recently cut the $139,000 price tag by more than $4,000. Larry Lambert prefers the solitude in Pontiac to a point. He bought a 2,700-square-foot house for $257,000 within Stonegate Pointe. Lambert, 40, picked a larger corner lot in a remote spot, figuring he'd enjoy the solitude until neighboring properties were developed. Almost two years later, the Detroit Public Schools art teacher has neighbors on only one side of his home and the opposite side of his street is barren. "If I had kids, which I don't, I'd probably be concerned because I would want them to at least go in the neighborhood and play around," he said. The community is about 60 percent completed, but finishing could take years depending on the number of sales, said one of the project's builders, Patrick O'Leary of Farmington Hills-based Hometowne Building Co. It will take a transformation to revive Taylor Meadows, which was abandoned in January due to disinterested buyers and financial problems, said Tony Vendittelli, a managing member of Taylor Associates LLC, the site's owner. He recently met with Mayor Cameron Priebe and wants to reconfigure the stacked-ranch units to a more traditional layout. "People weren't really interested in climbing stairs and living on top of each other," Vendittelli said. Taylor officials in October voted to ban new development for six months. But it was never implemented, which angered resident Frank Slavik, a contractor who is organizing a recall effort against two City Council members. He lives on Tiara Lane in the Monroe Meadows subdivision on an unfinished cul-de-sac, where one lot is undeveloped, one house is being auctioned and another one sold for $209,000, about $100,000 less than what Slavik's home is worth, he said. Slavik said he has had difficulty refinancing his home. "It's going to kill everyone's value on this street," Slavik, 34, said. "It drives me nuts." You can reach Robert Snell at (313) 222-2028 or rsnell@detnews.com.  | ||
Thnk2mch Member Username: Thnk2mch Post Number: 531 Registered: 02-2006 |
See following thread - already covered https://www.atdetroit.net/forum/mes sages/5/88357.html?1165265165 |
