California Town Resorts to Spray Painting Lawns to Sell Homes

green

One hard-hit town in Southern California has resorted to spray painting the lawns of foreclosed homes with hope the distressed properties will be more readily scooped up.

The town of Perris, located in Riverside County, a region where foreclosures run rampant, has allocated a certain amount of money to spray paint bald spots green from a $2 million fund it set aside to stabilize affected neighborhoods.

Apparently it costs about $550 to spray paint a single lawn, which begs the question, why not put in real grass? Surely sod can’t be that expensive.

Regardless, the dye is environmentally safe, and won’t pose a threat to pets or people, so that’s good news.

Unfortunately, the paint is only designed to last up to six months, which makes you wonder if that’ll be long enough to sell off the excess inventory.

Home sales were up nearly 60 percent in Riverside County last month according to real estate information provider DataQuick, but the median sales price is down more than 41 percent.

Most of those sales are distressed properties, those that have been previously foreclosed on in the past 12 months.

(photo: chefranden)