An interesting phenomenon is occurring in communities across the country. Like junk cars, the parts and pieces inside the home are worth more than the actual home itself. With the rise in commodity prices for copper and other metals to record highs, many homes in depressed real estate markets are being chopped up for parts by owners or thieves.
Many of the urban markets have homes that were build nearly 100 years ago and have copper piping throughout. The homes are worthless for the most part as their is such an excess inventory. But demand for the parts in these homes is growing rapidly.
I have a friend who is an artist who restores tin ceilings from old homes and then re-purposes them as amazing art works. He has been doing this for over 10 years and is always on the look out for tin ceiling tiles. You can see what can be done with these restored tin ceilings here.
But for many it has to be very disconcerting to see homes essentially demolished for parts.
Similar stories are unfolding nationwide as a glut of home foreclosures coincides with record highs in the price of copper and other metals.
Real estate brokers and local authorities say once-proud homes coast-to-coast are being stripped for copper, aluminum, and brass by thieves. Much of it ends up with scrap metal traders who say nearly all copper gets shipped overseas, much of it to China and India.
In areas hit hardest by foreclosures, such as the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, copper and other metals used in plumbing, heating systems and telephone lines are now more valuable than some homes. via Reuters.
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Its a major problem of people stealing all the wiring, plumbing, and the ac units for the copper in them. Particularly any vacant houses and REO's that we have been buying. About a 1/4 of them have something stolen from them.
You have a nice blog here. I have a real estate investing blog at http://www.georgiabuyer.com that you should check out sometime.
Thanks,
Shane Wilson
We're having a problem with it here too and not just in the urban areas as it was a couple of years ago!
Interesting article. Don't know why I am surprised. In commercial real estate, it is still possible to buy properties cheaper than their replacement costs. Keep it up with the thought provoking articles.