When you first hear the term "Zombie Home" you might think that this would be an article about sprucing up your house for Halloween. But what it really refers to are vacant homes that still have the original owner, mostly unaware, owning the home.
Florida happens to have the most zombie homes in the country. According to RealtyTrac, a California based real estate statistics company, Florida has approximately 90,000 vacant foreclosed homes. Second and third place go to California and Illinois who combined still have less than Florida.
So how does a zombie home happen? It isn't a virus or a bite from a diseased animal. When a bank initiates a foreclosure they will send a letter to the owner notifying them, a lot of owners are walking away from the property at this point. In some cases, the bank decides that the house is not worth going through with the foreclosure and cancels the foreclosure, passing ownership and liability back to the owner. This is where the Zombie happens. A lot of owners are unaware of the turn in events but the counties and states continue to assess taxes on these properties and charge the owner. The houses start to fall into disrepair and become eyesores in the communities. Most owners don't realize they are in fact liable until they start seeing the effects on their credit.
The good news is that the Florida housing market is still making upward movement. March was the 15th consecutive month that median home prices have increased year over year in the state of Florida according to Dean Asher, President of Florida Realtors.
If you know of anyone that is looking to buy or sell their home, send them over to www.MikeGalovic.com to contact me and start looking through all the available properties!
