South Jamaica’s foreclosure crisis brings scam artists, squatters

The foreclosure crisis has nearly devastated South Jamaica, Queens. The neighborhood has seen 27 additional foreclosures since June 2008, when the Daily News counted 98 homes at some stage of the process. On the single 145th Street block between Linden Boulevard and 115th Avenue, 15 homes are currently in foreclosure. The crisis is inviting squatters and short sales, while depressing home values to, in some cases, less than half of their peak values. Speculators are running rampant there, and preying on distressed homeowners. Many have used straw buyers to drive up the price of a home before either abandoning them or reselling it, the Daily News reported. Some South Jamaica tenants, meanwhile, have stopped making rental payments and are simply biding their time before eviction. [NYDN] and [NYDN]