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102 102 GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT PROPERTY PRESERVATION SERVICING TECH NEW YORK TRACKS OVER 3K 'ZOMBIE HOMES' A special team created by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (NYC HPD) has identified over 3,000 zombie homes in the Big Apple. ese are mostly based in areas that are still recovering from the economic distress caused during the Great Recession. According to Leila Bozorg, Deputy Commissioner of HPD, a major part of this team's work involves collecting data on such homes and the extent of the challenge of rehabilitating these properties. She told FOX News that new laws allow them to hold financial lenders more accountable once a home falls into foreclosure. NYC has also partnered with organizations like the Center for NYC Neighborhoods to help homeowners who have fallen behind on their mortgage payments to find funds and help prevent the creation of more zombie homes. "We send people out to survey homes to try to document where zombie homes are in New York City and what's the extent of the challenge," Bozorg told FOX News. New York neighborhoods such as Central Brooklyn, Southeast Queens, northern Staten Island, and parts of the Bronx, particularly, have a higher number of distressed and abandoned properties compared to the rest of the city, according to HPD data. According to a report by Curbed, the city saw around 18,000 foreclosure filings in 2007, when the foreclosure crisis first hit New York. Today, there are at least 2,000 abandoned and deteriorated homes many of which are in the process of foreclosure. "When so many families are struggling to find an affordable place to live, we can't afford to allow these vacant, blighted homes that pose threats to our communities," Matthew Creegan, a spokesperson for HPD, told Curbed. "e city's zombie homes unit has been working to identify where these properties are and take necessary action to get them back on track." HOUSING INSURERS MADE TO STAY California state regulators have announced a one-year moratorium banning insurers from not renewing homeowner's policies in areas impacted by wildfires, Los Angeles Times reports, as the state has experienced a number of insurers leaving the hardest-hit areas of the state. "I have heard the same story again and again. People getting dropped by their insurance after decades," Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. "To add insult to injury, many struggle to find coverage." Los Angeles Times reports that the plan affects more than 800,000 homeowners in Northern and Southern California who live in ZIP codes next to 16 recently declared wildfire disasters, including high-priced areas such as the Los Angeles, Orange, and Santa Clara Counties. "is wildfire insurance crisis has been years in the making, but it is an emergency we must deal with now if we are going to keep the California dream of homeownership from becoming the California nightmare, as an increasing number of homeowners struggle to find coverage," Lara added. Redfin previously reported that these counties are at risk of losing more than $2 trillion worth of housing as a result of recent fires. Los Angeles County has 1.49 million households valued at $1.2 trillion, with an estimated median home value of $625,000. Orange County has a total housing value of $502.6 billion, with a median home value of $709,800. "Homes in places like Malibu, the hills around Los Angeles, and wine country in Northern California have historically been desirable because the natural beauty of the surroundings has outweighed the risk of natural disaster," Redfin Chief Economist Daryl Fairweather said. "But with homebuyers and sellers in fire-prone parts of California really starting to feel how environmental risk factors are impacting both the safety and value of their homes, long-term demand will change, though California overall is unlikely to lose its luster. Demand and prices for homes in fire-prone areas will go down, but as a result, they'll increase in safer parts of the state. California is in the midst of a housing shortage, and the state should take wildfire risk into account when deciding where to focus its building efforts."

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