Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosCoils of utility wiring dot a large vacant lot west of Fieldstone Crossing in Redmond. The development was designed to have 162 homes, but only about 50 have been built. Now Bank of the Cascades owns the vacant lots and has put them up for sale. Some residents worry about what will fill the lots when the economy recovers.
Where the housing boom - and the sidewalks - end
What’s it like living in a development full of vacant lots? At Fieldstone Crossing in Redmond, residents have seen home prices drop to half what they paid. But many are staying positive, citing the views and the space to play
By Patrick Cliff / The Bulletin
Published: October 12. 2009 4:00AM PSTThere are the mountain views and the rugged one-hole putt-putt course, but when the Roberts family first moved into Fieldstone Crossing in Redmond almost two years ago, they just wanted neighbors.
Like several other developments in Central Oregon, Fieldstone Crossing remains only partially built. Investors and residents bought the homes expecting to own something in a robust neighborhood. Instead, vacant lots dot the developments.
At Fieldstone, some people are hopeful, if worried about the development’s future. Many are wistful about their original expectations when they bought their Craftsman-style homes there.
A 114-lot field behind the Roberts home sits empty, but for utility wires coiling from the weedy ground and streetlights hanging over empty roads. The field is bank owned. Most of the built sections of the subdivision are occupied. A few homes do have “For Sale” signs, some with asking prices about half what current residents paid.
Redmond’s average home sales price peaked in 2006 at $285,134, and it has fallen to 66 percent of that. Some homes in Fieldstone have fallen to about 50 percent of their 2006 price.
One 1,559-square-foot home, for example, is listed by Focus Realty for $125,000. The three-bedroom home is full of amenities, including a fireplace and walk-in closet. In 2006, the same home sold for more than $230,000, according to county property records.
Pahlisch Homes Inc. built about 50 of the 162 homes the company originally planned before voluntarily turning the development over to Bank of the Cascades earlier this year. Residents still pay homeowner association monthly dues of $92, which helps pay for the manicured trails, swimming pool and playground.
Mike Roberts and his family lived near Portland — where they were surrounded by neighbors — before buying their Fieldstone home in February 2008. At the time, about a dozen empty homes sat on the blocks around them, and one couple lived across the street. Nobody could miss the massive piece of empty land next to the homes.
“At first we liked it. Then it got kind of lonely,” Roberts said.
Making do
Other developments have gaps of empty lots. With the economic downturn, builders stopped constructing homes. Canyon Rim, another northwest Redmond development, is about 75 percent built. Residents there have begun to find ways to fill in vacant lots until homes are built, according to resident Kris Rees, who is also a broker with Coldwell Banker — Mayfield Realty in Redmond.
One lot is now a small park where kids often play football or baseball, Rees said. And the residents have proposed building a community garden on another lot.
“It’s certainly going to help if it’s not a trash pile,” Rees said.
At Fieldstone Crossing, the empty field has become a sort of amenity. Some area children have improvised there. Roberts’ daughter Haley, 13, built a one-hole putt-putt golf course behind the family home.
The course, about 20 yards long, is lined by rocks and pieces of wood Haley salvaged from empty lots where they were left behind by construction crews.
“With everybody leaving their scraps, it was easy to find stuff,” Haley said.
Haley said neighborhood children used to have a fort in the field, just north of her backyard, but it was mysteriously dismantled. Haley never found out what happened.
From Rosy Wickramasinghe’s front door, the uninterrupted view across 29th Street is of mountains and the vacant lot. The Wickramasinghes bought there house last year, and the open lots, for them, were actually a benefit, she said. Other than the pool and manicured trails at Fieldstone, the family would have a place to play.
“We see people going for walks,” Wickramasinghe said. “We see kids riding bikes. So that’s a great benefit.”
Roberts also tries to find positives in the empty space.
“Our house is the last house before all the empty spots,” Roberts said. “It’s actually not bad. No one can obstruct our view of the mountains. Now we’re just afraid of what’s going to be built there.”
The boundaries of Fieldstone’s progress are clear, with the development edging up against Redmond’s rural past. To the north and west sit empty fields with a few rickety barns. Immediately south of the development, a single horse grazes in a small field.
Fieldstone was meant to reach from 27th Street to 31st Street. But 29th Street, where Roberts lives, is now the western edge of the development. The manicured lawns on the west side of 29th meet the vacant lots at a clear border, where the deep green lawns meet foot-tall weeds.
The Boots live across from Roberts. Krissy Boot, 17, likes to jog along the vacant streets. Her family, though, worries about what the vacant lots mean to their home’s value. The family, like the neighbors, worries about what homes will eventually be built there. Even if they look the same, Boot asked, what if they’re cheaply made?
“It’s kind of scary,” Boot said. “It’s hard for us to look at.”
Value
That fear is more about the future than the present. It appears that nothing will be built soon. Bank of the Cascades put the 114 lots on sale, but it hasn’t struck any deals.
“We’ve had some interest in the lots, but we haven’t been able to get together with anyone on a serious offer,” said Brian Bergler of the Bank of the Cascades. “They’re up for sale.”
When the bank took over the property, it also held a handful of homes, all of which it has sold, Bergler said.
Retiree Les Banta is one investor who took advantage of the low prices, buying a foreclosed home. Banta plans to rent out the house until the housing market recovers.
He wouldn’t specify how much he paid for the home but said it was about 50 percent of the original sales price. Banta said the deal was so good that he could sell to the family who lost the home and still make a profit.
“I could sell them the house $100,000 cheaper than what they lost,” Banta said.
Other investors bought homes well before the crash.
In 2005, David Childress bought one of the early homes built at Fieldstone. He paid $210,000 for the home, and he doesn’t expect to recover his investment anytime soon. He rents the home for $780 per month, but hasn’t raised that in years.
Childress now worries that he won’t recover his investment.
“Now they’re selling for $123,000. What does that tell you? It wasn’t a very good investment,” Childress said. “I would sell it, but I can’t.”
The sidewalk along 29th stops periodically, interrupted by vacant lots. Donna Roosa lives next to a vacant lot on the street. Behind her family’s home, a full block of vacant lots lines the street.
Like other families, Roosa said hers worries about what will be built once the economy recovers. As she loaded the refrigerator in her garage, she looked toward the 114 vacant lots and said, “I thought this was going to stay Pahlisch. You don’t know what’s going to be built. ... You don’t know what’s going up.”
That uncertainty separates Fieldstone Crossing from other unfinished subdivisions, many of which are still owned by the original developer. The bank isn’t in the business of owning real estate, Roberts said, and so he understands that they want the property off their books.
“They want their money back,” Roberts said.
Roberts had hoped to move into a neighborhood with plenty of children, so that his three kids would have many playmates. The neighbors — with and without kids — are friendly, but there aren’t as many as he’d hoped.
He understood when he bought the home that the economy was slowing down, but had hoped for fewer vacant lots. Now, he said, everything is stalled, and the future of the large field behind his home is uncertain.
His family’s experience has been a mix of fun and un- certainty.
“We pay our dues. We do get to go swimming for four months out of the year,” Roberts said. “It’s just a lot less crowded. We wouldn’t mind more houses with more families.”
Patrick Cliff can be reached at 541-633-2161 or at pcliff@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
