Will another one bite the dust?
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The Times story today about new homes being razed in Victorville has hard core housing crash gawkers wondering if more unsold tracts will be demolished. In the video that brought the Victorville demolition to the blogosphere, the blogger says a crew member told him of an upcoming demolition in Temecula.
The crew was mum when I got there, though. Blogger Jim The Realtor sent an agent/reporter out to see if another Inland Empire development taken over by the same bank might be the one they were talking about, but the results were inconclusive. He says 18 of 32 new homes were sold in the development, 14 remain vacant. Five of the 18 occupied houses are in some stage of foreclosure, he reports.
At the Calculated Risk blog, where Bill was among the first to put up the demolition video, commenters are calling the Victorville phenomenon ‘home-i-cide.’
When I was in Victorville, I could see what builders there are up against. There were billboards advertising four-bedroom houses with three-car garages for rent at $995 a month. Who knows if they have any takers, and how much they could negotiate below that monthly amount.
It looks like a race to the bottom between rentals and houses for sale.
If anyone gets word of another demolition, let us know.
--Peter Y. Hong
An excavator sits near a soon to be completely torn down model home in Victorville on Friday, May 1, 2009. (Christina House / For the Times)