Builder offers to knock down and start fresh

In this uncertain real estate market, builder Jack Campo is busting down doors to get new business.

The Port Jefferson-based Campo Brothers has been offering to knock down people's homes and build new ones of 1,850 square feet and up, for $250,000 and up.

Campo said the company has spent about $25,000 in a months-long ad campaign that also touts homes for sale in its other subdivisions. "If you love where you live, why not have the home of your dreams?" one ad reads in a local Suffolk paper.

At least six deals have been signed so far and about four others are in the making, Campo said. "It's popular because there's not a lot of land left," the veteran builder said. One sentiment is common among potential clients, including some who had gone house hunting, he said: "They want to stay where they are, but they weren't satisfied with the house anymore."

A Mount Sinai homeowner was going to renovate her house and add a second story, the builder said, but then found out it would be cheaper to start anew. She's signed a contract to pay $277,000 for a two-story, four-bedroom, 2,400-square-foot home with basement, Campo said.

Others want to replace their summer cottages with bigger, modern homes, he said.

While raze and build is not new on Long Island, Campo expects more of it as government scoops up properties for open space and developers run out of buildable land. His next frontier will be Nassau, more developed than Suffolk.

"If we do 10 of those a year, that would be a big number," Campo said.

SUFFOLK LEADS IN FORECLOSURES

Suffolk has more new foreclosure cases this year than any other county in the state, followed by Brooklyn and then Nassau, according to New York state court officials.

Suffolk also ranked first in number of cases wrapped up this year, which means the houses were auctioned off or the suit dismissed by a judge or withdrawn by the lender or investor. It had the second-highest pending caseload of any county, the courts said.

As of Oct. 11, Suffolk had 7,457 new cases filed, making the total 12,326 pending cases as of that date. In addition, 3,711 cases closed this year, the data show.

Nassau so far ranks third this year in the 4,482 new cases filed and also in the 10,708 pending cases as of Oct. 11, figures show. It had the second-highest number of cases wrapped up, 2,300, the courts said. Those numbers reflect the two counties' demographics. They're more developed and populous than most of the state and are dominated by single-family homes.

Brooklyn got 4,684 new cases this year, has 14,351 pending cases and closed 1,685 cases, figures show.

The numbers provide a glimpse into the backlog of cases in the courts, which will be losing about 2,000 positions statewide to help close the projected $9 billion budget gap next year.

State court officials on Long Island say they're already swamped by foreclosures and that court employees have been diverted from regular duties to work on such cases, from negotiating settlements to pressing families and lenders to submit evidence. - ELLEN YAN