Vacant, Foreclosed Properties Dot Carrollwood Landscape

The tattered white piece of paper is posted in the window of the peach-colored house on Knoll Ridge Drive.

"NOTICE UNSAFE."

The vacant Carrollwood house, whose address has been written by hand on its exterior, sits near the intersection of Ehrlich and Turner roads in the middle of a residential neighborhood.

While the foreclosure rate in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater remains one of the highest in the nation according to the Tampa Bay Business Journal, a blighted home is still an anomaly in north Tampa's communities of Carrollwood and Northdale, where real estate officials and residents say the level of blight due to foreclosed homes like the one on Knoll Ridge hasn't been as much of an issue.

"There are a lot less foreclosures in Carrollwood and Northdale and other parts of north Tampa than there were a year and two years ago, so that's a good thing," said Andrew Duncan, a real estate agent for RE/MAX. "The market in those areas is really starting to stabilize and show improvement and banks are getting a lot more focused on doing short sales to avoid foreclosure and vacant properties."

Duncan attributed the area's lower rate of foreclosures to the fact that home values are stabilizing and that more people are pursuing short sales instead of letting a home go into foreclosure.

"Plus, many banks are even offering to waive deficiency upfront, and provide financial incentives for owners to cooperate with short sales," Duncan said.

But even with incentives available, blight can devalue a property next door to a vacant, foreclosed home.

John Blinck, operations manager for Hillsborough County's code enforcement department, said unless residents submit complaints to his department, the county won't be aware of vacant homes.

Tell-tale signs of a blighted home, Blinck said, include stagnant swimming pools, newspapers accumulating in driveways, high front lawns and broken windows.

Help combatting blight recently came from the Board of County Commissioners, who in May approved a property preservation ordinance that allows Blinck's department to secure a blighted home - caging a pool, for example - and then notify the property owner to charge them for the work.

"Prior to that," Blinck said, "I had to notify the owner, take it to a hearing, have a running fine, and take it to the code enforcement board."

Frank Giordano, who has lived in Northdale for 31 years and serves on the Northdale Civic Association's board, said he takes advantage of code enforcement's help to keep blighted homes at bay.

"We've got a couple situations of homes that are really bad," he said. "I can send a deed restriction letter, but a lot of times, people don't care or answer it. What I try to do is get code enforcement to help out. They do what they can."

Giordano said when the NCA hears about a vacant, foreclosed home, they pay to have the grass cut using U.S. Lawns.

Even so, Giordano said, blighted homes have a long-term effect on a neighborhood's aesthetics.

"The folks who live next door to or around it have to deal with looking at it," he said. "If they try to sell their house, people say, 'Well, look next door.' It's tough."

What do you think about the foreclosure rate and level of blight in Carrollwood and Northdale? Tell us in the comments.