The volume of bank-owned foreclosed homes — known as REOs, or real-estate owned properties — is growing at an alarming rate, compounding the foreclosure crisis by sticking hard-hit neighborhoods with vacant and often trashed homes that drive down property values even more. REOs are foreclosed homes that lenders take back after they don’t sell at foreclosure auctions or sheriff’s sales. They keep the homes in inventory until they can be sold again.
The bottom line is that many of these homes( as many as 3 out of 5) are in condos, townhome or single family homeowner associations. And, the banks or FANNIE dont want to be on the hook for the assessments. So they just let the homes sit idol. To them nothing is happening. To the community the rest of the owners are dealing with not only the blight of them, they are dealing with the budget shortfall that empty homes cause and there is absolutly no help coming out of Washington DC. If the number of home in the US that are in common interest communities is any where near the number trade groups like CAI post ( http://www.caionline.org/about/press/Pages/IndustryLeadersFormCAIChapterinNewMexico.aspx ) then this housing debacle is far from over and your government is trying it's best to cover it up.
