Hundreds of vacant foreclosed homes are still plaguing Prince George's County neighborhoods, the Washington Post reports.
Even with the housing market recovering in the county, there are still around 51,000 foreclosures in the county and around 1,900 of them are vacant, the paper writes.
According to the Post, officials are trying to deal with the problem by distributing funds to buy vacant foreclosures and by requiring banks to register foreclosed homes.
First, the homes are in such poor physical condition that they would require tens of thousands of dollars to repair and be made livable. Second, lending for this type of home - needing the extensive rehab - is tighter than lending for "regular" homes. Unfortunately, home buyers that might fix up these places can't get the rehab loan or FHA 203(k). Result: they sit and continue to add to neighborhood blight.