Neighborhood savior - saving one house at a time

By Megan Martin
March 25, 2008

The hardships of the current real estate industry have turned some neighborhood streets into desolate ghost towns. Vacant houses are now eye-sores overrun with weeds. One Valley woman has had enough, and she’s taking action to take back her street.
Valerie McDonald has lived in the same house for 15 years. In that time she has seen neighbors come and go, but never has she seen so many leave without a replacement to fill the neighborly void.
“This has always been a friendly street. Kids were always playing outside,” said McDonald of her central Phoenix neighborhood. “But that all changed when people started selling.”
McDonald’s neighbors, like many others, took advantage of the housing boom the city experienced over the last five years. But as the market cooled, and finally stopped, the houses which once contained families now sit empty as the new owners fall into foreclosure.
“There were six houses for sale for months. That was just on this street alone,” said McDonald. “Some were right next door to each other.”
Some of the houses which had sat for sale ultimately fell into foreclosure.
“The whole aura of the neighborhood had changed,” said McDonald. “It wasn’t as friendly. It felt dead.”
The empty houses became unkempt, and weeds began to take over the yards. McDonald began a daily battle to keep the foreclosed yard next door from invading her own manicured lawn.
McDonald wasn’t the only neighbor who noticed the change.
“There was one house whose weeds were almost three feet high,” said Michael Carpenter, who stopped sitting on his front porch because of the eye sore across the street.
While doing yard work one day, McDonald decided to cross the property line and began working in yard next door.
“One day I pulled weeds, another day I mowed the lawn. I started doing it almost as often as I worked in my own yard.”
Carpenter noticed the efforts of McDonald, and the small difference it made. “She was always over there. It was amazing what a difference some yard work can make to the look and feel of the street.”
The difference was noticed by more neighbors, and soon, McDonald says the neighborhood regained its friendly attitude.
“If I was working in the yard people would come over and talk or help pull weeds. We started working on some of the other houses, too.”
When the foreclosed house next door went to auction, McDonald decided to take more than a neighborly interest in the house.
“I put so much work into that yard, I figured maybe I could put more into it and help to make it more like it used to be.”
McDonald bought the house next door, and is looking to buy another house which will go on auction later this year.
“Why shouldn’t I take control of the situation? It may have a financial benefit in the future, but for now it just means I feel better about where I live and that’s enough.”