By Diana Olick | CNBC
They are a blight on neighborhoods and bank balance sheets: homes in the foreclosure process, some in limbo for several years, their former owners gone but the home still not repossessed by the bank. They were dubbed “zombies” because their empty state was seen as a danger to both the neighborhood and the overall health of the housing market.
Banks had let these homes sit because they were of so little value and because of endless foreclosure processing issues. Most are in disrepair, some occupied by squatters or drug dealers. But now, things are changing. The legal process has been largely streamlined, and as home prices rise nationwide, so too do the values of these zombie homes; banks are now pushing them through the foreclosure process and out to auction far more quickly.
