Jacksonville, Lake Forest Feel Foreclosure Crunch
The Jacksonville housing market foreclosure epidemic is widespread among all neighborhoods and income groups. But in one community on the Northside, a battleground of owners, investors, and lenders is strewn with the casualties of a Florida mortgage industry in turmoil.
According to RealtyTrac, Jacksonville has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, most recently clocking in at one foreclosure per 123 households - though the data provider has received some criticism for counting some households more than once.
In Lake Forest, bordered by the Trout River and Edgewood Avenue, the concentration is much greater, with some neighborhood blocks plagued with clusters of homes in default.
At the intersection of Marion Street and Bunker Hill Boulevard, a utility pole is plastered with signs that claim to offer relief from Florida mortgage woes. Some are handwritten: “We Buy Houses Ca$h!” Others are sleekly printed: “Avoid foreclosure.”
Less than a block away, there is a for-sale sign: “For sale! Why pay rent when you can own! Bad credit OK!”
Calling the number, however, doesn’t connect you to an owner, but to a Florida mortgage broker trying to land the business of interested buyers and pre-qualify them for a loan.
Jacksonville Mortgage Group broker Mike Provencal said that he can give basic information about a home, but mostly tries to pre-qualify a buyer for a mortgage before passing him on to the home’s owner.
Some Lake Forest residents don’t see the turmoil that their neighbors are going through.
Helen Lauderdale, who lives on Bunker Hill Boulevard, said she’s received a few foreclosure-related leaflets in her mailbox, but assumed it was just junk mail going to everybody. In reality, it might be because at least three homes on her street, including one two doors down, have already entered the foreclosure process.
A couple of hundred feet away is a home owned by Gloria Wells. She bought her home in June 2005 for $75,000 and had an adjustable-rate Florida mortgage with an extremely high initial rate of 10.5 percent. Her lender filed court documents against the home in November 2006, and the court set an auction date for the home in February.
She’s still living in her home, but several of her neighbors a couple of blocks away weren’t so lucky.
Peggie Wattron, a Realtor for Lighthouse Realty who is selling the home, said she has about 90 foreclosure listings.
She said she’s handled all types of crises in foreclosed homes - from owners who won’t leave until a policeman and cleanup crew literally kick them, and their belongings, out to the curb, to urban campers that break in and move into foreclosed homes.
“I’ve heard every story in the world. I literally go out to the house and put a note on the door, and then some act like they didn’t think it could happen. Most of the time I never get a message and no phone calls,” she said.
In Lake Forest, the clean-out crews leave a visible wake. At 8134 Lexington St. - which is one of three foreclosures within two blocks - more than a dozen trash bags of personal belongings sit outside a decaying home with broken windows.
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