Welcome to New York City’s foreclosure capital – tree-lined Blackford Avenue on Staten Island.
On two tiny blocks in the Port Richmond neighborhood, eight houses are in foreclosure and five other families have received formal notices from banks informing them they are in danger of the same.
In the first quarter of 2008, 174 foreclosures were filed on Staten Island – the highest per-capita rate of any borough, up from 34 foreclosures in the same period last year, according to data compiled by PropertyShark.com, a real-estate search Web site.
As the city finds itself in the maw of the national housing crisis, these buyers – many lured by subprime and other adjustable-rate loans to buy houses out of their price range – are now losing their homes.
And it’s on Blackford Avenue where foreclosure is bearing down on more families than anywhere else in the city.
Of the street’s 13 crisis homes, most are newly built two-story town houses, worth $300,000 to $400,000.
These homeowners saddled themselves with debt, some taking out subprime loans almost $100,000 more than the price of their homes to cover interest payments. And they did so often with hardly any down payment.
“It seems that everyone’s going through housing problems around here,” said Desiree Figueroa, whose 172 Blackford Ave. townhouse was seized by Option One Mortgage and sold last week.
Figueroa, 42, and her husband, José, 41, bought their $445,000 three-bedroom, two-story dream home less than two years ago from a developer. Neither had owned property before. They support four children with Desiree working as a waitress in Brooklyn and José as a UPS driver.
“I never thought they’d let me have the house because my husband and I have such bad credit,” Desiree explained.
But the couple was approved for a subprime loan with a down payment of only $5,000.
They took out a first and a second mortgage. When home prices in the area dropped, the Figueroas quickly owed more than their house was worth.
Six months after signing on the dotted line, the Figueroas realized they could not keep up with the $3,700 monthly payments.
“I couldn’t pay my mortgage, pay my bills and get groceries – so we gave up on the house,” she said.
The bank took over the house, and it was resold – for $375,000.
Now the Figueroas – who rent a smaller home across the street at 153 Blackford Ave. for $1,700 a month – are filing for bankruptcy because they can’t pay back the money they owe to the mortgage company.
“We got suckered into it and looked like idiots,” she said. “I’m not buying another house anytime soon.”
MaryAnne Fix, 54, is lucky to be outside the block’s foreclosure crisis, living at 98 Blackford Ave. in her mother’s mortgage-free home.
“I was shocked at the number of houses that went up for sale in the past year,” said Fix of the 10 homes on the market.
As home prices continue to plummet and houses stay on the market longer, Fix said neighbors were nervous about their future.
“I’ve never seen so many people moving in and out,” Fix said. “The whole neighborhood is going down. There’s more crime these days, more people hanging out on street corners. Some people are worried.”