Hyattsville's Vacant Houses Part Four: Plight of a Nation

Editor's Note: This is part 4 in a in Hyattsville. After seeing dozens of "For Sale" signs and indications of uninhabited homes, Patch decided to give a general overview of how these vacancies are affecting Hyattsville.

In January 2011, , taking the lives of two of their children—Kimberly and Kelli.

Since then, the charred remains of the family house at 4709 40th Avenue has sat empty after the family moved to Langley Park and later to Texas.

City code reports indicate that the property hasn’t been cited in the year since.

According to Maryland real property data, the property was valued at $266,500 before and after the fire. Marcos Zelaya is still listed as the property owner.

Flight Plight

Houses that aren’t taken care of—vacant of not—can wreak havoc on their neighborhoods.

An MSN Real Estate article indicates that neighbors who let the appearance of their homes deteriorate are a top reason for a decrease in value of surrounding properties.

And Hyattsville is certainly not alone in its vacant house plight. A report by the Center for Community Progress indicates that the number of vacant properties measured by vacancy rates has increased over the past 40 years in the United States.

In fact, at the beginning of 2009, the number of vacant homes was about 11 percent. A CNN Money report indicates that the national vacancy rate as of March 2011 was 11.4 percent and a GAO report states that the burden of these vacancies often falls to the towns and cities, which incorporate them.

In Hyattsville, charges for any unpaid forced clean-up of a vacant home done by the city becomes a lien on the home, city spokeswoman Abby Sandel said.

The city doesn't have a way to determine how much lien money from vacant homes is actually collected since it doesn't yet have a way of tracking which homes don't have people living in them, she said.