Memories and furniture often left behind at foreclosed houses

A family can accumulate a lot of belongings in a home pretty quickly. If a foreclosure forces them out of their home, they have to make some tough decisions on what gets left behind.

Last year, the number of home forecloses in southeastern North Carolina rose overall from the previous year.

Foreclosures in Bladen and Columbus counties remained steady, while Pender and Brunswick counties saw big increases.

In New Hanover County there were more than a thousand home foreclosures in 2008, 300 more than the previous year. With limited time and space to move out, many of the items left are behind to tell a story.

Local real estate broker Bob McCorkle said, “I see lots of old pictures. I’ve seen birth certificates, baptismal records, lots of children’s things, drawings, school work, boxes and boxes of memories that they probably just don’t have room to take with them.”

McCorkle has been through plenty of foreclosed homes; it is his job to pick up the pieces once the family has moved out. “A lot of times we’ll have fans missing, almost always the stove, the dishwasher, everything kind of gets stripped out of the house.”

That wasn’t the case for a house on Windemere Road where the family left behind a large couch, some dressers, and plenty of memories.

McCorkle said most of the items left behind by the families have more personal value than anything else. If they do find something worth saving, it is usually donated to a charity like the Salvation Army.