Upscale Avila's foreclosure pain shared by all of us

Behind its tree-hemmed gate on U.S. 41 in Lutz, the millionaire enclave of Avila in Tampa has largely held off the foreclosure threat with pitchforks bared.

But that particularly bogeyman made a rude appearance this month among the resident sport stars, developers, entrepreneurs and wealthy auto dealers.

Two bank foreclosure properties hit the market at prices some residents consider downright unneighborly.

One is the Chateau de Chenes, a 19,000-square-foot estate repossessed by the bank when owners Joe and Liz O'Connell moved to the south of France and stopped paying their mortgage.

The bank wants $2.7 million for the eight-bedroom, 12-bathroom mansion, making a mockery of smaller Avila houses on the market that have been asking much the same price.

The other foreclosure property is a 5,500-square-foot house for sale for $855,000. That's small fry for Avila. But even that house is priced $140,000 below the cheapest similarly sized, nonforeclosure listing.

I got a call from a Realtor who was furious about what he considers to be the bank's callous disregard for neighborhood stability.

So few homes sell in preserves like Avila that a couple of cut-rate transactions can deflate housing prices in a flash. And with 50 out of 300 homes for sale, Avila's pain could be deep.

I suppose few will weep for a community in which overpaid sports stars kick off size-13 cleats in the cork-lined confines of their home theaters.

But consider this: If the housing crunch is making renters out of millionaires, what are the odds of us lesser folk escaping unscathed?

Foreclosures remain the great ink spot on economists' housing chart. You have two schools of thought: One group assumes foreclosures have stabilized as banks purge the market of nonpaying real estate speculators. We've seen the worst of the bloodbath.

The other group isn't so sure: What if bankers have merely run out of ammo and are reloading for their next round of executions?

Foreclosure prevention programs have largely been busts, according to a report this week by a liberal advocacy group called the National Consumer Law Center.

The U.S. Treasury, which is supposed to oversee the Obama administration's Home Affordable Modification Program, has been lax. Banks reject foreclosure mediation candidates without explanation, even though lenders are supposed to show calculations why a homeowner is financially ineligible for a cheaper loan.

A recent government report said about 230,000 homeowners lowered their house payments with federal assistance since March, though at least 3 million are eligible. How many Floridians have used these programs? No one knows for sure. Save for Brevard County, few Florida localities keep tabs on whether foreclosure rescue programs work.

Maybe Avila homeowners aren't the best candidates for government handouts. But I wouldn't get too giddy about the travails of the high and mighty. I'm finding it hard to laugh.

James Thorner can be reached at jthorner@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3313.