Among the lush landscapes and expensive neighborhoods on Eagle's Floating Feather Road stand the casualties of a booming housing market gone bad - a modern-day ghost town of unfinished new homes.

About a dozen lots in the tiny Yorkshire subdivision, sandwiched between Eagle Pointe and Berkshire Estates, are on the auction block as part of a bankruptcy filing by Justin Walker, owner of the shuttered Crestwood Construction, a Meridian company that was once a major homebuilder in Idaho and Utah.

Properties listed in court documents included about a dozen lots in Meridian's Pear Blossom subdivision, six houses on Cinnamon Lane in Nampa and a lot in The Trellis subdivision in Star.

In Yorkshire, a few skeletal houses, clusters of weeds, broken glass and construction trash have been eyesores for the past year.

But the effect of Walker's bankruptcy - with more than 800 creditors and about $69 million in liabilities - extends far beyond Eagle. It touches both large corporations and tiny one-man operations.

And Idaho bankruptcy trustees and attorneys say more homebuilders face the same fate, and Crestwood's troubles should be a cautionary tale for consumers and business people alike.

"I've been in this business a long time. Nobody is immune," said C. Barry Zimmerman, an Idaho bankruptcy trustee in Coeur d'Alene. "It doesn't take much to upset the apple cart when people are living on the edge. We just have to be better managers and stay away from excess."

GOOD TIMES GONE BAD

Before the housing market began to sputter in summer 2006, Walker was busy building houses across the Treasure Valley and in Utah - mainly for investors who wanted to turn a quick buck.

But Walker overextended his financing as the market dipped. Bankruptcy documents list more than 150 houses and lots with first and second mortgages, taxes and homeowners association dues totalling tens of millions of dollars.

Many buyers broke their promises to purchase the homes as the values dropped, Walker told the Idaho Statesman in February.

At the time, Walker said he could sue these reneging buyers, but that it wouldn't be worth the long legal battles. Even had he won, he said, buyers might no longer have been able to qualify for loans because banks had become so tight-fisted.

"I don't know the outcome of Crestwood, but it doesn't look good," Walker said then.

He declined to comment for this story.

THE RIPPLES SPREAD

In April, Walker filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which allows all properties and belongings - except those he is allowed to keep by the court - to be liquidated in order to pay as many creditors as possible, first those with claims secured by real property and then those with "unsecured claims."

Most of the money raised from the properties, which appear to range in value from $11,200 to $1.6 million, will go to banks, mortgage lenders and government taxes.

But about 800 creditors - hundreds of subcontractors including painters, house cleaners and suppliers of everything from trash service to building supplies - likely will have to eat about $11 million in unsecured debt.

"It's a real bummer. It's been tough," said Hyrum Wilson, owner of A&Z Construction of Nampa, which subcontracted with Walker until about a year ago. "They were good guys. It's just a bad economy."

Walker owes Wilson $17,151, according to a bankruptcy statement. But Wilson said he doesn't expect he'll ever see the money.

"We used up all of our savings to make up with it," Wilson said. "We already absorbed it and moved on."

Other subcontractors or suppliers might not be as fortunate, and could find themselves filing for bankruptcy, said Idaho bankruptcy trustees and attorneys.

"It's one of those sad situations," said Bernie Rakozy, a bankruptcy trustee in Boise. "A lot of your subs can't (make up the difference). They're not in a position to take that loss."

WHO'S TO BLAME?

When the housing market was raging, more people got into building and selling houses - even those without knowledge or experience in the process, said bankruptcy attorney Rudy Patrick.

These newcomers were some of the first to get hurt when the housing market turned south. But now the downturn has hit even big-time developers like Walker.

"The real estate market falling apart has hurt so many," Patrick said. Walker "would never leave this mess in Eagle if he'd had a choice."

Idaho tracks only the number and type of bankruptcy cases, but trustees estimate there could be up to 40 or so homebuilders in the same situation as Walker.

"In reality, it's not always their fault," Zimmerman said. "It's a lot of things. It's a problem that we all have to share some knowledge and responsibility for."

Patrick said his heart goes out to tradesmen, suppliers and subcontractors, but he has less sympathy for bigger creditors and lenders that got carried away with the money they could make on easy loans and credit.

"Lenders know the law. Creditors know that anyone they extend credit to can file bankruptcy, and yet credit gets extended all the time," Patrick said.

Rakozy agrees.

"Everybody's guilty: lenders, mortgage brokers," Rakozy said. "All these people were making a lot of money, and then the faucet gets turned off. There was way too much blue sky in the price of the homes."

A SECOND CHANCE

Bankruptcy "gives to the honest but unfortunate debtora new opportunity in life," said a 1934 U.S. Supreme Court decision regarding bankruptcy law.

The bankruptcy system exists in the United States because the country didn't like sentencing debtors to prison or slavery, Patrick said.

"Welcome to America, a place where you can fail and still go on," he said.

Idaho experts said corporations, businesses and individuals still need to become better financial managers by avoiding credit or using it wisely, cutting expenditures to below revenue and income, and learning how to save.

"We all have to be smart consumers," Zimmerman said. "If we start dealing on a cash basis on everything, we would probably work ourselves out of these problems."

In Walker's case, the advice comes too late, but Zimmerman believes the number of people who end up in similar predicaments could be reduced by educating junior high and high school students in budgeting, spending, saving and using credit properly.

YORKSHIRE'S FUTURE

In Eagle, homeowners in Berkshire say they're disappointed with the way Crestwood left the Yorkshire subdivision, and they look forward to a time when they don't have to worry about safety or look at the deteriorating houses.

"We feel for them, but we have to live here," said Kenny Pittman, a member of the Berkshire homeowners association board. "It's a big deal all the way around."

That wait may not be long.

New developers could be picked through the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. by a sealed bidding process that ends Aug. 29.

After the bids are awarded, construction on vacant properties could begin.

Three houses that are about 35 percent complete, including one that was condemned because of problems with a wall, will be inspected by Eagle city staff and engineers to determine whether any roofing, trusses or framing should be replaced and if mold is a problem. Then they can be finished.

"Eventually this subdivision will be developed," Pittman said, "and, hopefully, it will be a beautiful thing."

Sandra Forester: 377-6464