South of Sunnyside

About this time last year Kim and I started to see signs of the first abandonment on our block. By spring, the lone tree in the property’s front yard was completely dried up, and beginning to decay; it fell over completely sometime during the summer.

We assumed that this was one of the foreclosures that have become increasingly popular, in our neighborhood and elsewhere. But yesterday, Kim learned that the house’s story is much more complex.

The property owners actually live across the street, in a much larger, two-story home. The owners initially rented the house to a family, with the understanding that said family would purchase the home at market value after two years. Construction on the house was completed late in 2005, and as the end lease term approached, the value of the home plummeted. The lessees offered market value to purchase the home, but the homeowners wanted what they paid.

Neither got what they wanted, so we all suffer.

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