When People Run Away From Their Home

"Increasing numbers of newer Chandler homes are being abandoned by cash-strapped owners, leaving weeds, green pools and headaches for neighbors and city officials.

[T]he phenomenon is affecting [Mesa, Gilbert and Peoria] too. A significant portion of the recent Chandler complaints are from newer neighborhoods in southeastern parts of the city where homes once sold for $400,000 or more and values have dropped, Carr said. Buyers who divorce, lose a job or can't afford rising adjustable-rate interest are finding they can't sell their houses for what they owe on them, he said.

One abandoned home in the Brooks Ranch subdivision near Chandler Heights and Gilbert roads has a $499,000 assessed value for tax purposes, tall weeds and a green pool. Carr said he hasn't been able to contact the owners and has asked Maricopa County to treat the pool so mosquitoes won't breed in it. In that same neighborhood a home that sold for $701,000 in March is on the market for $689,000.

Some tie it to declining home values, adjustable-rate mortgages, discouraged investors and cash-strapped owners.

'It started ramping up during the past six months and I don't see it stopping any time soon,' said Ray Villa, acting neighborhood services director for Mesa. 'We're getting between five and 10 complaints a week that someone has walked away from a property and is letting it deteriorate,' he said."