1,400 people show up for foreclosure auction

Nearly 1,400 people headed to a foreclosure auction at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Midtown yesterday, where foreclosed homes were being auctioned off at below-market-rate prices. Families walked away with vacation homes, rental properties, and larger homes for cheap. One family paid just $80,000 for a seven-bedroom, three-bath home in Newark previously assessed at $425,000. However, outside the hotel, housing advocacy groups such as Acorn and Bail Out the People protested the auction, which they say will only spur new foreclosures. But Jim Corum, president of the Real Estate Disposition Corporation, thinks it is important to fill empty, foreclosed homes. “You don’t want to have a vacant home on your street. That’s not a positive thing for anybody,” he said.