It’s worth pointing out to the Penguin and readers that Aspen Hill comprises two different statistical zones of 20906 (Wheaton and Silver Spring) and also a sizable chunk of 20853 (Rockville). The so-called “Layhill Triangle” demarcated by Layhill and Bel Pre Roads and Georgia Avenue is indeed a very likely spot to pick up on foreclosed properties and it will continue to be a hotspot for the forseeable future. Left out of this picture, however, is what’s happening on the other side of Georgia Avenue, in “the houses” in Aspen Hill.

I don’t need to tell most people who live around here, but for the uninformed reader who might somehow have the idea that Aspen Hill is a bucolic landscape of the gentry, let me point out that at last count, the roughly two miles of Aspen Hill Road had about 15 houses with for-sale signs, some of which have been up there for 6 months or more. In “south Aspen Hill”, usually known as the Wheaton Woods subdivision, it’s become an unquestioned barrio. The foreclosure rate there would probably be much higher that it is, if it weren’t for the massive subletting and home-overcrowded. Go to the Gazette.net site and research house fires in Aspen Hill and the articles continue to provide coverage such as “11 people made homeless” but they don’t usually directly state that these were four distinct families living in a teensy 900 square foot “knox box” with an unfinished basement.

But eventually you run out of closet space to rent, and with the economy effectively closed to all new construction work, the wolf is at the door. Expect to see these places start to fall onto the market in one mass wave. That will be in 20853 rather than 20906, but this is no more Rockville than Wheaton is.