A report from the Orlando Sentinel in Florida. "Home foreclosures in Orlando grew by 60 percent in the first quarter compared with the year before, even as foreclosures nationwide are falling. Lenders foreclosed on 2,049 homes in the first three months of 2019 in Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake counties, according to Attom Solutions, an increase from 1,280 in the first quarter of 2018."

"Foreclosures had been falling sharply since the peak of the housing crisis in 2009 and 2010. But that changed at the end of 2018, when there was a sudden spike. Attom’s Todd Jones said rising house prices combined with the region’s low wages might be a factor in the rising number of foreclosures. Jones said home affordability in Orlando has dropped below its historical average."

"'So homebuyers are more financially stretched,' said Jones, Attom’s chief product officer."

The Weatherford Democrat in Texas. "Willow Park officials are looking to partner with local, reputable companies after the builders on 18 homes in Meadow Place Estates, Serene Country Homes, LLC, abandoned the lots. The issue was brought up by Willow Park resident Shivaun Palmer after she read an article published last week about Serene Country Homes, which has a Fort Worth address."

"'I’m so excited about living in this community and my husband and I drove by [Meadow Place], and it’s just heartbreaking to see those houses unfinished,' Palmer said. 'It’s a lovely neighborhood and I just felt devastated for the people that have built their homes there.'"

"According to WP Communications and Marketing Specialist Rosealee Kertok, Serene Country Homes started building in 2017, but never finished the homes. The city was told Serene Country Homes ran out of money."

"'The houses were owned by two different sets of investors — nine of them are owned by Global Forest [LLC] and nine of them are owned by another investment company,' Kertok said. 'Serene is the builder on all 18 of those lots and they were doing the building for Global [Forest] and the other company. None of them are completely finished and they are in various stages of construction — some of them are closer to being done than others.'"

"According to the Serene Country Homes website, homes in the Meadow Place Willow Park development are listed at a starting price of $285,950, going up to $369,950. But as far as the city knows, no one had purchased any of the unfinished Serene homes."

"WP City Manager Bryan Grimes said they became aware of the situation sometime in October 2018. 'We reached out to them and at that point they still had an employee. We got the standard, ‘It’s going to be OK, we have a cash-flow problem.’ Every time I hear a contractor say they have a cash-flow problem, it’s going to get bad,' Grimes said."

"The city was unable to get any further communication from Serene. 'You’re not going to get anything out of them,' Grimes said. 'They weren’t even really a company, it was a ponzi scheme. They had [foreign] investors and it was set up so if you invested in the property, you got an unexpired green card — you got citizenship for it. If you noticed in January, you saw a bunch of Asian people driving around the neighborhood and stopping, getting out and taking pictures. That’s what that was, the individual investors.'"

"Grimes said the lots are a public safety hazard and are full of debris. He added that two months ago, when temperatures hit below freezing, the shower heads in the unfinished homes burst, causing water to flow out. According to an article that was published by CBS DFW on Nov. 13, 2018, homeowners in the Trails of Fossil Creek and The Hills of Windridge said Serene had yet to finish the houses or complete warranty work on their homes."

"Sherry Huckaby closed on her home in The Trails of Fossil Creek back in April 2018, but her home wasn’t finished until a month later. She said the experience has been anything but 'serene.'"

"'We have about the same number of houses that were abandoned in our neighborhood too. I don’t know how many are in the White Settlement neighborhood, but I drove out there one time and saw about 10 to 15 at that point. It’s a mess,' Huckaby said. 'I closed on my house at the end of April, but it wasn’t finished. They still hadn’t gotten the air conditioning working and they had all sorts of problems. I found out later on that they did that to a lot of people, so they were just pushing to get the money for the sales.'"

"Huckaby said she saw Serene employees come back and finish one home in her neighborhood and in The Hills of Windridge. 'They’re doing it under the radar because you can’t get anybody to talk to, they’re all gone. There’s actually one house on the street behind me and one house that I saw in White Settlement and they got those two houses to a completed status and they’re trying to sell them now,' Huckaby said. 'The problem with Serene is not only are they tied to a foreign investor company, A2A [Developments], but they’ve opened so many LLCs that God knows where the money is. You have 20 LLCs and you can shove that money wherever you want to.'"

"A lawsuit was filed on Nov. 6, 2018, by more than a dozen investors against Serene Country Homes, Windridge A2A Developments, Fossil Creek A2A Developments and Foo Tiang Meng Dirk Robert as the tustee of Windridge Trust and Fossil Creek Trust, according to the official document filed with the Tarrant County District Court."

"'Right now I’m sending all the information I can find to the investors’ attorney so if somebody is going to sue them, they’re going to get all the information I can give them,' Huckaby said. 'So that’s where I am now.'"