Unfinished homes

Dawn Dell got a call once - years ago - from a woman who was looking at the shell of a house.

How that woman got Dell's telephone number the real estate agent didn't know, but the woman was in Spring Lake with a moving truck. She'd sold everything and come here, but her house was half-finished.

"She had no home," Dell said. The woman was calling anyone who could possibly help.

Those half-built homes are still standing there, said Spring Lake district manager Joe DeCerbo. On Heavitree Court, some next to the greens at Bobcat Run golf course, there are a half-dozen homes.

Some have porches, some have walls, some have roof trusses stacked in the front yard, waiting, grayed by months of sun and rain. Some are barely started; some are nearly finished.

Lots, or not?

A search by Highlands County department Helen McKinney shows 333 permits on houses that have had at least one inspection but not a final examination, she said in January.

"Some have had only temporary electric or rough plumbing," she said from reading the permits that dated back to 2005.

There is no county ordinance which requires builders to finish their work, she said. "Unless it's a safety hazard, they can be left in whatever state they're in."

Well, unless they become a nuisance, the code enforcement officer is called.

"We are trying to do as much lot mowing as we can, just to help those people," April Hartseil said.

National problem

The U.S. Census says the number of incomplete new homes rose from 39 percent in January 2009 to 43 percent in October, a result of the building bust.

Even so, Steve Fruit, an agent with RE/MAX Realty Plus II Lake Placid, didn't perceive half-built homes to be a big problem in Highlands County.

"There are homes that are just sitting out there that are incomplete, that are not on the market," Fruit said.

An Orlando Sentinel story told of a few half-finished mansions, including one listed for $1.3 million. Finished, the house could have listed for $311 to $758 per square foot.

Buyers here don't seem to be interested in shell houses, Dell and Fruit said.

"I've had a few buyers who looked," Fruit said, "but no one jumped on them."

"There are some in Sebring Hills, some in Spring Lake, several in Placid Lakes," Fruit said. "Some of them have no (for sale) signs, so they're probably not foreclosed yet. We don't get calls on them. The ones we have seen listed, I didn't think they were priced too good, compared to a move-in ready house. Maybe that's why they aren't selling. The cost of construction is greater than the cost of resale homes."

Sun 'N Lake

Three years ago, Don Childress and his wife, Joyce, were standing on top of a slab at 4948 San Lorenzo Drive, where his new house should have been.

"They poured the slab in June 2006," Childress said for a February 2007 story. "That's the last thing they did."

Like a half-dozen other homeowners in Sun N' Lake of Sebring, the Childresses had borrowed money from Coast Bank of Florida to build their house. They authorized the bank to disburse $52,000 to a builder for the lot, and $26,000 for lot preparation.

"That's $78,000," Childress said. "But Coast gave them $116,000 at closing."

Although they were upside down in the house, they eventually finished it and moved in. Today, they're happy.

Al Greishaber Jr., Sun 'N Lake's general manager, said all the shell houses are finished now.

"There may be one they're still working on," he said.

Most of those that remain around Highlands County are decaying. If carpeting has already been installed, mold may be a problem. Wood floors, paneling and even wall studs are decaying, tile is fading in the sun.

Some houses weren't secured, so thieves have stolen the appliances. In some cases, code enforcement officer Hartseil said, the copper wiring was stripped.

FAST FACT:

The U.S. Census says the number of

incomplete new homes rose from 39

percent in January 2009 to 43 percent

in October, a result of the building bust.