Houses fallen to foreclosure dot Sterling neighborhoods
By Elizabeth Coe
Across Loudoun County, for-sale signs and foreclosure notices have spiked to a higher level than many have ever seen, but some communities have been hit harder than others.
In Sterling Park, the number of abandoned homes and those up for auction has swelled to a visible level on many neighborhood streets.
East Charlotte Avenue looks like a checkerboard in places where neatly manicured lawns run up against long, overgrown grass – a sign of an abandoned house.
"People thought they would be able to afford a home, but they couldn't make the payments and now they've been forced to leave," said Tracey Fuller, a resident of East Charlotte Avenue.
Jeanette Newton, chief executive officer of the Dulles Area Association of Realtors, said there's a good explanation for the high number of foreclosures in the eastern tip of Loudoun.
"The majority of the lower-priced homes are in Sterling, and naturally those attract more first-time home buyers," she said. "Those seem to be the group targeted by the subprime lending market."
Subprime lending is the term applied to the many "creative," interest-only or variable loans that resulted in home buyers taking on more debt than their income could repay. With some of these loans, borrowers pay only the interest at first, but monthly payments rise sharply as the homeowner begins paying off the principal.
Michael Hunt’s home on Penny Lane in Sugarland Run sits between a house that went into foreclosure last year and is now occupied by renters, and a house that has recently been foreclosed by the bank.
It’s hard to miss what is going on, he said. Since he moved to Sugarland Run in 2005, he’s witnessed countless homes there go into foreclosure.
“Property values have probably dropped 20 to 25 percent, but there’s not much you can do about it,” he said. “You just have to stick it out. If you like where you live, you’ll stick it out.”
In the 2,000-home community, more than 140 homes have been foreclosed in the last year and a half, and 84 are going through foreclosure right now, said Robert Winterbottom, president of the Sugarland Run board of directors.
"The numbers are ridiculously high," he said. “Judging by what I see, we're at about 10 a month. I think this is the hardest I've ever seen it."
And Winterbottom would know. He’s been doing custom remodels of homes in the area for more than 30 years.
Gerardo Coppola has lived with his wife, Josiane, at the corner of North Argonne Avenue and East Brunswick Street in Sterling Park for almost 40 years.
When the couple moved in, rent was $250 a month. Now, the new neighbors across the street are struggling to afford their $3,500 monthly payment and might be forced to sell their home soon, he said.
Coppola said it's hard to see so many people forced out of the neighborhood.
"I blame the lenders," he said. "How could they lend money to people who couldn't afford to pay? This was a dream come true for them to own a house. Now that dream is taken away."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com