On Thursday night, we told you about a shortage of homes for sale on the market in Sioux Falls. To make matters worse, we found out some of the homes that *are vacant, can't be touched.
There was a dramatic rise in home foreclosures during the sub-prime mortgage crisis. America experienced a record number of vacant homes across the country.
While some have been bought, others remain empty.
"It's frustrating," Hobie Beman said.
Beman lives across the street from the house that has sat empty for over two years. He says an empty house can invite trouble.
"One time the police were over there when some individuals were around looking at it, kids climbing on the trees and things in the backyard," Beman said.
But right now the house isn't for sale.
"These are all the ones I've worked on," real estate broker Rick Sawvell with Hegg Companies said.
Sawvell has 110 homes that have been foreclosed on that he's trying to get back on the market. But he says because there are so many all across the country, it's a long drawn out process.
Don: There's such a back log that it's slowing the process down?
Rick: Yeah, yeah there's a back log.
He says the big banks sometimes don't even know a house is vacant.
"The problem you have is this back log, they don't have time to look at all these mortgages, they don't have time to go through that and report to them, this is vacant," Sawvell said.
That's why vacant homes will probably remain empty for awhile, which is frustrating to homeowners like Beman.
"I just feel like the neighborhood and everyone would be better served if the banks would work with investors and first time buyers and homeowners to get this turned over so someone was in it rather than let them sit a year or two devalue the house and neighborhood," Beman said.
Sawvell says Sioux Falls isn't as bad as some larger cities where they have entire blocks of foreclosed homes, which only adds to that backlog of paperwork.
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