Newer neighborhood already cracking

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Nearly a quarter of the houses in a recently-built subdivision on Albuquerque's western edge are cracking and crumbling, turning residents' dreams of homeownership into nightmares.

Elizabeth Fernandez, who lives in one of the homes with her husband and 1-year-old daughter, said cracks began showing up in 2008, the year after they moved in.

"We started noticing little cracks everywhere along, you know, everywhere," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, our house is falling apart.' "

Now, there's bulging stucco, walls pulling apart from each other and cracks in almost every room. Upstairs in her daughter's play room, the ceiling literally split in half.

"We called the company and their solution is to screw some screws up there to fix the problem," Fernandez said. But the ceiling split again, she said, exposing insulation and drywall.

D.R. Horton started building the 202-home subdivision, which sits at the base of Los Lunas Hill in Valencia County near Interstate 25 and N.M. 6, in 2005. In 2006, residents began moving in, and about a year later, they reported the problems to the builder. The company fixed some houses that were under warranty.

Lots of homeowners said they're living with shifting foundations, settling lots and major structural damage.

So far, 40 residents have joined a lawsuit against the builder, D.R. Horton, and other homeowners may join soon. The builder constructed the Sagebrush at Huning Ranch subdivision on fine sand and soils sensitive to moisture and movement, causing the homes and foundations to crack and crumble, according to the lawsuit.

"Right down there, at the edge and it has been repaired once but it broke up and opened again," said Vera Bluhm, another Sagebrush homeowner, pointing to a long crack that runs almost the length of a wall on the outside of her house.

Doors and windows don't shut either, which points to a settling, sinking foundation, she said. Bluhm and her husband planned to spend their retirement years in the home.

"It was supposed to be the last place we ever lived and we were very excited...beautiful view of the mountain," she said.

Residents said the values of their homes are sinking as fast as their foundations. Some homeowners haven't been able to sell their homes and have simply walked away and let the bank foreclose.

"We invested almost pretty much all our money in it and for it to be sinking like this and for us never going to be able to sell it," said Kathyrn Mendez, yet another homeowner.

D.R.Horton has fixed Mendez's settling and cracking sidewalk three times. Now her son's bedroom is cracking.

The homebuilder refused to talk to News 13 on camera. However, in a written statement, it blamed residents for the cracking homes and foundations, saying they are overwatering, changing the grades of their lots and altering the developer's original landscaping. Homeowners called that explanation ridiculous.

"That's absurd," Fernandez said. "How can our house sink just from watering the backyard?"

A recent visit to the subdivision showed that most of the lots remain xeriscaped and patches of grass are small. Residents said they feel helpless and unsafe.

"It's just scary," Fernandez said, "because we don't know what will happen with our house."