Jubilee21
April 1st, 2008, 11:57 PM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/usa_housing_metal_dc;_ylt=Amr2zAzVrQ51kcAVgBeLA7Os 0NUE
By Jason Szep
Tue Apr 1, 7:29 PM ET
BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Shards of broken glass outside the basement window of 31 Vine Street hint at the destruction inside the three-story home.
Thieves smashed the window to break in and then gutted the property for its copper pipes -- a crime that has spread across the United States as the economy slows and foreclosed homes stand empty and vulnerable.
"They cut it here and then pulled it right out of the wall," real estate broker Marc Charney said, pointing to broken plaster near a wrecked baseboard heating system in the 2,774-sq-ft home in Brockton, Massachusetts, a working-class city of 94,304 people.
Similar stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals.
Real estate brokers and local authorities say once-proud homes coast-to-coast are being stripped for copper, aluminum, and brass by thieves. Much of it ends up with scrap metal traders who say nearly all copper gets shipped overseas, much of it to China and India.
In areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, copper and other metals used in plumbing, heating systems and telephone lines are now more valuable than some homes.
(more)
"This problem has been gathering a certain amount of momentum over the last year as you've seen commodity prices spike up to record highs at the same time you've got an economy that's teetering domestically," he said.
But real-estate brokers say more needs to be done to stave off further damage to areas hit hard by waves of foreclosures.
"It's happening in too many places throughout the country for people to be saying that they are policing who they are getting it from," said Bill Collins, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
Self-explanatory and very sad sign of the times!
A dear friend of mine was a victim of this in her rental properties from tenents who bailed out this winter..it was horrible and the damage so severe it became impossible to keep up with, they may have to declare bankruptcy because of the volume of damage..on top of lost rental income.They literally gutted the homes for the copper..just immoral, horendous brazen theft.:tsk
By Jason Szep
Tue Apr 1, 7:29 PM ET
BROCKTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Shards of broken glass outside the basement window of 31 Vine Street hint at the destruction inside the three-story home.
Thieves smashed the window to break in and then gutted the property for its copper pipes -- a crime that has spread across the United States as the economy slows and foreclosed homes stand empty and vulnerable.
"They cut it here and then pulled it right out of the wall," real estate broker Marc Charney said, pointing to broken plaster near a wrecked baseboard heating system in the 2,774-sq-ft home in Brockton, Massachusetts, a working-class city of 94,304 people.
Similar stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals.
Real estate brokers and local authorities say once-proud homes coast-to-coast are being stripped for copper, aluminum, and brass by thieves. Much of it ends up with scrap metal traders who say nearly all copper gets shipped overseas, much of it to China and India.
In areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, copper and other metals used in plumbing, heating systems and telephone lines are now more valuable than some homes.
(more)
"This problem has been gathering a certain amount of momentum over the last year as you've seen commodity prices spike up to record highs at the same time you've got an economy that's teetering domestically," he said.
But real-estate brokers say more needs to be done to stave off further damage to areas hit hard by waves of foreclosures.
"It's happening in too many places throughout the country for people to be saying that they are policing who they are getting it from," said Bill Collins, president of the New Jersey chapter of the National Association of Real Estate Brokers.
Self-explanatory and very sad sign of the times!
A dear friend of mine was a victim of this in her rental properties from tenents who bailed out this winter..it was horrible and the damage so severe it became impossible to keep up with, they may have to declare bankruptcy because of the volume of damage..on top of lost rental income.They literally gutted the homes for the copper..just immoral, horendous brazen theft.:tsk