A worried neighbor called the Salem building inspector's office last week after noticing an open basement window in a house on Watson Street. When inspectors took a look, it appeared the window had been tampered with and someone may have entered the house. The neighbor said the occupants had moved out several months earlier.
A city inspector searched the property records and discovered the building was owned by a bank in the Midwest. He tried calling the bank and was redirected to a branch of the company in another part of the country.
"I called several times and just got a recording," said Tom McGrath, an assistant building inspector. Frustrated and not wanting to wait any longer, he had the building secured.
Although the broken window turned out to be a relatively minor problem, it could be the tip of a much bigger issue. As foreclosures rise, so do abandoned properties.
The number of foreclosures on the North Shore more than tripled last year, according to figures from the Southern Essex Registry of Deeds.
"There has been a large increase of (abandoned) properties," Peabody Building Inspector Kevin Goggin said. He cited a number of reasons, including foreclosures.
"We're seeing a few more empty houses, which is highly unusual," Tom St. Pierre, Salem's building inspector, said. "When you see an empty house, (usually) there's a For Sale sign up on it. Now, we're seeing empty houses with nothing up."
The concern, of course, is that vacant properties will fall prey to vandals, or become neighborhood blights and fire hazards. When that happens, and the owner can't be located, it becomes a neighborhood and city problem.
Cities take notice
Although the situation on the North Shore pales in comparison to cities like Boston, where there have been hundreds of foreclosures and steps are being taken to seize or buy properties, vacant buildings are moving up on local agendas. Some local communities, including Peabody and Salem, already have working groups just to address problem buildings.
Peabody is dealing with the problem right now on Park Street, near the downtown. In this case, three buildings were condemned by the city, went through foreclosures and were taken over by a Maine bank. This story, however, appears headed toward a happy ending.
"We reached out to the bank right away, and we found them very responsive," said Jean Delios, director of the city's Office of Community Development and Planning.
After meetings with the lender and neighbors, two of the buildings have been sold at auction and the third is scheduled to go on sale soon. "We found that by partnering with the lender and involving the neighborhood, we can really come up with a win-win for everybody," Delios said.
Salem city officials began holding monthly meetings more than a year ago to track problem properties. Recently, they have spent more time talking about foreclosed buildings. Foreclosures are of special concern, Mayor Kim Driscoll said, because the property owners are often out-of-state lenders who are hard to find and slow to respond.
"We're making sure we're aware where (the foreclosed properties) are," Driscoll said. "We don't want to have a situation where there are squatters or vandalism occurring."
Salem is attacking the problem from several angles, by offering help to residents facing foreclosures, and funds to investors who buy foreclosed and renovate properties, such as apartment buildings, with the stipulation that the majority of the apartments become affordable.
Finding the owners
The foreclosure problem has become so serious that last week the Southern Essex Registry of Deeds launched a program to help North Shore residents find out who owns empty buildings in their neighborhoods. Residents can call a phone number — 978-741-0201, Ext. 258 — or go to the Registry's Web site, www.salemdeeds.com, which has links to local property records.
"We got a couple of phone calls from people who were looking to find out who the bank was that owned a piece of property," Register John O'Brien said. "It happened to me in my own neighborhood. A couple of my neighbors wanted to know about a foreclosed (house) that was just sitting vacant ... and not shoveled. That got me thinking — this must be happening everywhere."
Beverly also is keeping a close eye on abandoned property.
"We have about six single-family (vacant homes) that look like they haven't been lived in for quite a while, but they're all secure," Steven Frederickson, director of municipal inspections, said. "That's basically my concern — that they aren't left open so kids can get in there."
Frederickson is about to tackle the issue from a wider perspective. He has been invited to join a statewide task force being formed by State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan to deal with the growing problem of abandoned properties. In addition to neighborhood blight, Coan is concerned about the safety threat to neighbors and firefighters. After six Worcester firefighters died in a 1999 fire in a vacant warehouse, the state instituted new regulations, including marking vacant buildings with an "X" to indicate the structure is unsafe and firefighters should not enter.
"We've come a long way in the past couple of decades, but we are obviously going into an economic downturn with an uncertain number of foreclosures ... and it seems to make sense to pull people together to see if there's something else we ought to be doing," Jennifer Mieth, a spokeswoman for Coan, said.
The group's first meeting will be held in early March.
With the subprime mortgage crisis in full swing, officials say there is no end in sight to foreclosures. As a result, city officials expect more abandoned buildings and more calls from residents concerned about a house on the corner with a broken window or open door.
"I think it's only going to get worse," O'Brien said.
North Shore foreclosures
Community 2006 2007*
Beverly 12 27
Boxford 3 8
Danvers 4 16
Hamilton 0 3
Ipswich 1 7
Manchester 2 2
Marblehead 1 11
Middleton 0 5
Peabody 11 53
Salem 21 61
Swampscott 7 9
Wenham 1 1
*Figures are through Feb. 12, 2008
Source: Southern Essex Registry of Deeds
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