How many unfinished, abandoned spec houses are out there?

Someone asked me this question yesterday and I really don’t know. Many of them never reached the stage of being listed on the MLS so absent a thorough examination of the open building permits in Town Hall, it’s impossible to say. They’ll be flushed out, though, when ownership reverts to the lenders and they come on as land with tear-downs on them.

14 Baldwin Farms South is an exception in that, although all work seems to have been abandoned last January, it shows on our MLS as active. The listing may be active but the construction certainly isn’t. The door’s open, there’s a water shut-off notice on the door and, while there still seems to be electricity (an outdoor light still shines), there’s no real sign of life. What happens to a house like this that sits through the winter unheated? Nothing good. I’m astonished that whoever is owed money secured by this house has done nothing to safeguard the asset but I suppose the banks are all busy these days.

This was originally listed for $9.975 million and dropped down to $6.795 before they quit. I can get it for you cheaper – call me.

4 Comments

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4 responses to “How many unfinished, abandoned spec houses are out there?

  1. Homeless

    How much for Land value?

  2. christopherfountain

    $2.5? They spent a fortune in sitework but that still leaves #14 with a swamp for a front yard. It’s a nice swamp, but still ….

  3. Cos Cobber

    How about those two houses on Edgewood Drive, behind the Mercedes dealership (north of rte 1). One is a modular, thrown together last spring (I think) and the other a stone clad georgian with a lawn of weeds 2ft high built last fall (another guess).

  4. TSIW

    On 14 Baldwin Farms South, as far as the door being open and the house being exposed to the elements, it stinks to me of insurance fraud in action. “Weather Damage” will undoubtedly be the claim to allow the owners to get some financial redress. As I said in another comment, I saw this house and it is really being neglected, maybe criminally neglected.