The impact of half-finished projects in California

One primary reason I've been banging the drum that there just wasn't enough proper due diligence done on new home projects during the boom (or what was done could be considered fraudulent due to the manipulating of data leading to patently false conclusions) was the impact on these half-finished projects to surrounding neighborhoods.

Whether in Hollywood, Oakland or out the suburbs of the Inland Empire, everyone suffers for the actions of relatively few people. And while many projects were ceased simply because of a lack of funding, some should never have been built in the first place due to lack of demand at the price points required to buy the land. From an L.A. Times story:

Nearly 250 residential developments with a combined total of 9,389 houses and condominiums have been halted in California, according to research firm Hanley Wood Market Intelligence. The units, worth close to $3.5 billion, were in various stages of development.

Now, many are in bankruptcy or have been foreclosed by lenders. Developers have halted sales on an additional 370 new-home developments -- about 30,000 units worth $11.9 billion...

In Hollywood, a chain secures a seven-story building still sheathed in yellow insulation panels and surrounded by steel scaffolding.

The Madrone condominium and retail complex at Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue had been scheduled for completion this spring.

But the developer, John Laing Homes, stopped answering its phones weeks ago and on Feb. 19 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Across the street, Tony Boon worried about the effect on Pink Pepper, a Thai restaurant he manages. He had hoped that residents, shoppers and employees at the complex would stop in for meals. Now his customers gaze out on the stagnant site.

"It should have been a beautiful building, but it's just kind of an eyesore," he said...

On the edge of Old Pasadena, the Pasadena Athletic Club and an office building on Fair Oaks Avenue were demolished to prepare for a six-story hotel, condominium and retail project. Work halted last year when financing fell through, the developer's attorney said.

The dirt lot sits empty, surrounded by a chain link fence and green plastic netting.

In the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the contractor stopped work more than a year ago on Fuller Lofts, a $20-million transformation of a 1920s-era Fuller Paint warehouse into condos on San Fernando Road.

The developer, Livable Places, has gone out of business and blames high construction costs, tightening credit for home buyers and a glut of competition...

Of course no one ever says, "We really didn't know what we were doing. Our timing, prices and sales assumptions were all 100% guesswork." Such honesty would be refreshing!

Click here for full story.

Collateral damage from unfinished new home projects

When I was recently asked by the blog L.A. Land to defend the temporary change in the tax law to allow builders to recapture taxes paid in the boom years to help them weather the bust, I did so partly to gauge the sentiments of the blog's readers. The results? A big PR headache for builders, as the mail ran 40:1 against any type of bailout.

But one of the reasons I defended the 'bailout' was because when a builder goes bust, it's not just the executives and employees who are punished -- it's also the vast army of subs and suppliers, not to mention homebuyers who were buying into what they thought would be a new -- and finished -- community. While the anti-bailout folks would casually dismiss this as Rumsfeldian 'collateral damage,' I think it's a bit more complicated than people either realize or want to know. From an MSNBC story:

As America’s housing market has foundered, homeowners who bought into newly rising projects at just the wrong time have found themselves marooned in stalled, abandoned or largely unoccupied developments with little place to turn, placing a strain on them and municipalities forced to pick up the pieces.

Experts say it’s one of the least examined aspects of the housing downturn, and one that has struck many parts of the country, from areas like Las Vegas, which experienced rampant speculation and overbuilding, to cities where construction was more restrained such as the Jersey Shore and Philadelphia...

One third of over 200 cities surveyed have seen an increase in abandoned or vacant properties in their communities as well as other forms of blight, according to a report released last month by the National League of Cities in Washington.

Nearly 60 percent said lenders have not offered to help cities deal with the fallout from foreclosures and other problems in housing.

“In more cases, cities are picking up the slack by maintaining the homes, mowing the lawns and making sure that neighborhoods with abandoned housing are safe,” said Christiana McFarland, research manager at the league’s Center for Policy and Research. “It’s a strain on resources.”

More than 25,000 vacant and abandoned properties cost eight Ohio cities at least $63 million, as local governments deal with job losses and the foreclosure crisis, according to a February report commissioned by ReBuild Ohio, a coalition of local government, nonprofit and civic groups...

Like abandoned and foreclosed homes, unfinished houses and projects are not merely community nuisances. They also contribute to the glut of inventory dragging down the market...

When fewer than half of the units in a project have been sold, the developer usually retains control of the homeowners association, diminishing the clout of residents if they wish to get things done.