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It's not good for a community in general to have a lot of vacant homes though. The house next to mine was in the middle of foreclosure when I first moved in. It was abandoned for two years. I had to call the city every couple weeks to have them come and mow the lawn of that house. They charged the owners (the bank, at that point, I think). But, living next to a house that has grass a foot tall invites a lot of critters. Kids also tried to break into the house to use it as a hang out because it was quite obvious that it was vacant. I had to call the police a few times for that too. Neighbors started mowing the front lawn of that house because it was a real eye sore and an invitation for trouble. On top of that, when it's in foreclosure, nobody is paying property taxes on it. When home values go down, so do property taxes and then our communities have less money to get by on. It's not a desireable situation. Now I know that the house on the other side of me will have the same fate and I'm dreading it (besides being sad that I'm losing the best neighbors in the world).
You end up paying for it, trust me, whether it's through a bail out of some type or whether your own taxes have to go up to cover the problem. The more houses that sell in distressed sales, the lower your own property values go also. It affects everybody in the community, not just the person who loses their home.
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