Non-profits are getting more donated homes in the wake of the housing market collapse, and the trend is likely to grow given the ongoing foreclosure crisis.
The homes, typically low-value ones, may be refurbished and resold or demolished to rid neighborhoods of blight, according to a story in USA Today.
By donating, mortgage owners free themselves from the cost of maintaining homes they can’t sell. The bigger benefit is that cleaned-up neighborhoods help stabilize values of surrounding homes, banks say.
“It’s a win, win, win” for the neighborhood, the bank and the investor, says Rebecca Mairone, head of Bank of America’s donation program.
BofA donated 150 homes in 2011. It plans to donate more than 1,200 next year, Mairone says. Wells Fargo donated more than 1,120 homes this year, up from 295 last year, it says.
Nationwide, Habitat for Humanity rehabilitated 1,210 homes that it received as donations or bought at distressed prices in the year ended last June. That’s nearly twice as many as Habitat rehabbed a year before, says Sue Henderson, vice president of U.S. operations.