More than 400 real estate industry players have been indicted since March – including dozens over the past two days – in a Justice Department crackdown on incidents of mortgage fraud nationwide that stem from the country's housing crisis.
Seventy-seven buyers have lost homes to foreclosure in Southern Chase, a subdivision of 406 homes.
When a gleaming new house goes up, and the homeowner moves in, most people celebrate that as good growth.
A wave of loan defaults in starter-home developments is pushing the foreclosure count in Mecklenburg County to record heights, an Observer analysis shows.
In the past decade, Beazer Homes USA built more houses in Mecklenburg County that have since foreclosed than any other builder.
The city of Charlotte does not count foreclosures. Neither does Mecklenburg County. Nor the state of North Carolina. Nor the federal government.
Home loan failures have more than quadrupled in Mecklenburg County since 1999. More foreclosures are filed here, per person, than any other county in the state.
"Have you considered buying a home?" a stranger asked.
Last year, more N.C. families were threatened with losing their homes through foreclosure than ever before, a new state report shows.
Detailed data on foreclosures in Cabarrus County's Southern Chase neighborhoodShortly after Andre Gray bought a new home in 2001, he recalls receiving two letters in the mail.
Agina Anderson's foreclosure dogs her. It weighs down her credit score like an anchor. Full Series
Beazer Homes USA told Dina Franklin it would pay the closing costs when she purchased a new home in 2003 in northeast Mecklenburg County.
It was 2002, the middle of the subprime mortgage boom. A young real estate agency was fishing for customers in an unlikely place.
New suburban neighborhoods that held promise for thousands of Charlotte families is now struggling with crime, blight and falling home values.
Builders continue hammering new houses in Charlotte's high-foreclosure areas.
