Apparently there's a new phenomenon called "Bandos" in some cities, homeless folk who move into abandoned houses (many of which still have running water and electricity courtesy of the foreclosing bank. 

Where are our leaders? Oh I know, in India going to Sikh temples. I hope they are not surprised when the 1st qtr sales tax revenue comes in very WEAK. If so, they are incompetent idiots!

This could have all been avoided, had some local leaders listened to the voices of reason and not their cheer leading friends.

Random - Yes, see the Sacramento Landing Blog, he has numerous stories on squatters living in abounded homes.

Here's a link to the Sacramento Landing blog: www.sacramentolanding.blogspot.com

Nice throwback to the old field parties.  They built over the fields, but the parties continue.  :)

A friend of mine told me that kids were doing this earlier this week.  This was not the first time raging in foreclosed homes.

So my question is... Why does the BPD not know of these incidents and or why was no one arrested.  Seems like a crime has been committed

"The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire..."

This is not a trend. Repeat. This is not a trend.

And exactly why are new developments in this city even being discussed at this point in time?

Has anyone driven Oak Street lately? It looks like the depression dropped on the street in the past month with so many empty, fenced and boarded up places between Chester Lane and Brundage. It's getting very ugly throughout town these days.

dbiker, the police responded to both incidents. What do you mean they don't know about this? And just because a crime has been committed does not mean someone is arrested everytime. I'm sure the person/s responsible who broke into the houses originally to start the parties didn't walk out of the crowd and confess to the police, assuming they were even still there.  

Oldblue is right about this.  The police are out in force every weekend to shut down these parties, they're just a lot of them though.  Usually the neighbors call and have them shut down.  It is kind of hard to expect the police force to make an arrest when the "squatters" can just abandon the house with the huge crowd. 

Californian real estate reporter Vanessa Gregory blogs on Money Talks about covering the house parties over the weekend.

A Bakersfield.com reader posts this article to Bakersfield.com/yourwords about how, in the middle of closing a deal to buy a first home recently, the reader realizes the foreclosed place has been trashed.

 Maybe if the cops actually did something to these kids it wouldn't be happening. Sure the cops went and broke up the party-but whose going to pay for the damage to the house? Why did they just let everybody leave? Every single person that was there should have been arrested for trespassing (among other things). Yea it's a lot of work but somebody needs to teach these kids that it's not okay, since obviously their parents don't know how to. If BPD started doing something about these kids eventually it won't happen anymore. Back in San Luis Obispo we rarely had these sorts of problems, because kids knew they wouldn't get away with it. They would have been arrested and charged with a ton of things, and the community would be backing SLOPD 100%. The parents here teach their kids that it's okay to trash other peoples houses, and BPD hasn't done anything to stop them. They show up and let everybody leave after the damage has been done, so that next weekend they can just do the same thing to somebody else's house.

 You are absolutely right on that one Meghan

Generally speaking, in those "vacant house party cases" the cops come in and just break it up and send the kids on their way. They are usually impaired (drugs and/or booze) but from the cops standpoint they are just trying to get them out of the neighborhood and break the party up so they can get on to bigger and better things.

But you are correct, no consequences means the kids will just repeat the behavior.

 It is a new phenomenon that the constabularies will have to address etbartley

I think that the police should come down hard on these illegal parties. Kids just want to have fun, but to someone who is trying to buy a home, it is very serious. You are making a very big purchase, looking forward to living in your new home, and while waiting for it to close escrow, it gets destroyed. Even if you have been living in a house already, and it gets burglarized, you feel violated. Then before you even get a chance to move in, the good feelings you should have about your home are destroyed.

Also, the wave of foreclosures is far from over. All of these foreclosed properties need to be sold, and families who are able to afford to live in them need to move in. The sub prime meltdown and the problems in the housing market are dragging down the economy. Once all the properties are absorbed the market can thrive and we can all get back to living the good life. If you want to get a good picture about what is going on in Bakersfield Real Estate right now, take a look at my blog. I just did an extensive analysis of the situation and created some charts that show that most of the sales are due to REOs, and short sales are not closing. A short sale is where the mortgage and what is owed on a property is higher than its current value. This is what is known as being upside-down. If they also have an ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) that is due to reset, their monthly mortgage payment could shoot up so they can no longer afford to make the payments. Then they will go into foreclosure and lose their home. If the bank will approve the short sale, at a lower rate than what is owed, they can walk away with no money, but without a foreclosure on their record. A lot of people are trying to do that, but very few short sales are closing. So, that means that most of the people who are trying to do short sales will end up losing their houses. Here is a link to my blog, with some charts that show just where the Bakersfield Real Estate Market is at as we enter March of 2008.