Homeowners left with unbuilt houses

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- There are some unfinished homes left abandoned in neighborhoods all across Texas.

Now a big builder with money troubles is also causing problems for people in Houston.

"There were signs of new building after the hurricane," said neighbor Franklin Rodriguez. "I don't know what happened, haven't seen any construction."

A sign Rodriguez, who was the first to move into Portrait Homes Fall Creek subdivision in Humble, says is disconcerting especially since he's noticed all the "sold" posting on the vacant lots are gone.

"Now mine is the only one that says sold," said Ashley Williams who is waiting for her home to be built.

But Williams doesn't know if she will ever get to move in. The slab for her home has been there for five or six weeks. The house is supposed to be done next month.

"It's like they deserted it," Williams said.

We found houses in mid construction at Portraits' Hanover subdivision in northwest Harris County as well. None of the familiar sounds of progress on this site either.

Numerous calls of ours to the Portrait office were not returned and workers at the main office told us to get out. However, a CEO out of Illinois has blamed slow sales and says the company is trying to re-establish credit so it can start building again.

Portrait is member in good standing with Better Business Bureau. Though the BBB says, especially during these unstable economic times, customers need to do even do more research, like looking at the local builders association, checking credit information and it wouldn't hurt to search for recent news stories.

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