MASTIC BEACH, N.Y. — They call it "The Matrix," a well-thumbed pile of maps locked in a cabinet at Village Hall that pinpoints all the empty "zombie houses" in this 4.2-square-mile seaside community. There's one on nearly every block.
"It's like a cancer," Mayor Maura Spery said of the scourge. "It's not getting any better. Each one of these is hurting property values for six or seven houses around it. Who wants to live in a place with so many vacant houses?"
The vacant properties are called zombie houses because their ownership is in limbo: mortgage holders have already left, but banks haven't yet taken possession through foreclosure, leaving the properties abandoned and often decaying.
A relic of the Great Recession, zombie houses have receded in many states — but not all. They remain, and are growing in number in several states, including here in New York and in nearby New Jersey and Massachusetts, which together account for 40 percent of the nation's vacant foreclosures. Over the last year, the number of zombie houses also has risen in Oklahoma, Michigan and Washington.
State and local officials like Spery are tired of them and demanding or taking action, saying the public cost of trying to maintain the vacant houses is unacceptable and they are driving down the value of neighboring property.
In New York, a group of mayors are pushing a proposal introduced by Democratic Attorney General Eric Schneiderman that would require banks to take responsibility for maintenance as soon as a house is vacant, so they can't avoid responsibility by postponing foreclosure.
In February, Schneiderman announced a $3.2 billion settlement with Morgan Stanley, part of which will go to local governments to help offset the costs of dealing with the properties.
In Memphis, Tenn., neighbors can now collect a $25 credit toward eventually buying a home each time they cut the grass at an abandoned property under a "mow to own" program. It's an approach that's also been used in St. Louis; Columbus, Ohio; and Rockford, Ill.