Yesterday, I wrote about how mounting foreclosures are adversely affecting local school districts, as the number of students displaced from their homes rises.
For those curious about how hard the foreclosure problem is hitting your own town or neighborhood, Cyberhomes has a tool you can use to show recent foreclosures in your neck of the woods. You can pull up the tool by clicking on "Track Foreclosures" on the far right, toward the top of your Cyberhomes home page. Clicking on "Track Foreclosures" will place a widget on your Cyberhomes home page, and you will be prompted to type in the name of the neighborhood, city, state and ZIP code.
By typing in the name of my New Jersey town -- which has a median estimated home value of $274,923, according to Cyberhomes -- I found information and photos for six foreclosures, ranging in price from $232,704 to $328,755. By clicking on the homes that Cyberhomes pulled up, I viewed facts about each property, such as the number of bedrooms and baths and the square footage, as well as the homes' sales history and assessed value. I also saw aerial shots of each home and overhead views of the neighborhood.
Six foreclosures in a town of about 1,487 homes doesn't seem like an overwhelming amount, but considering that in the past few months "for sale" signs have sprung up like weeds on the lawns of many homes throughout town, I suspect that more homeowners are struggling to stay afloat than the foreclosure number lets on. —Lauren Baier Kim