CEDAR HILL — Why is it taking congressional negotiators so long to agree on a financial bailout? The answer may be right there in your own neighborhood if there are foreclosed homes nearby.

We looked at one home in Cedar Hill with real estate appraiser Steve Nichols. It was obviously vacated in an hurry in this area where there are other foreclosed properties.

"They took the ovens but left the fridge," said Nichols, whose job is to evaluate what houses are really worth — as opposed to what interested parties think they're worth.

Welcome to "CSI: Real Estate."

"There's not gonna be a very high appraisal on this property," Nichols said as he looked around.

He sees things about a property's value a lot of people might miss.

A child's scooter is parked in front of the house to make it look lived in. But the central air conditioning units are gone. Nobody lives here.

Still, there's no "for sale" sign in front. If a bank owns it, Nichols says the bank doesn't want anyone to know it's vacant.

That accounts for the imponderable numbers of the $700 billion federal bailout.

Five out of the eleven houses on one Cedar Hill cul-de-sac we looked at have been foreclosed on, have never been lived in or are just plain empty. How much are they worth? Who knows? That's why it's so hard to guess how big this problem is.

For example: one house is on tax rolls for nearly $500,000.

"This was a $350,000, $400,000 home originally," Nichols said. "Now it's probably a $250,000 home."

But Nichols said its owners would not likely be able to get more than $200,000 for it now.

But the bank that wns a foreclosed property wants its value to be high. Its neighbors want it high, too.

The person who buys it wants it low price, of course.

And right now — without a buyer — a foreclosed home is worth nothing.

Congress has to figure which value is right.

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com