Chris Blunk says Wallen Homes has his $3,000 and no plans to build the house he paid for

An upscale home builder said it is pulling up stakes in New Mexico, leaving some of its customers wondering where their money is.

Some costumers of Wallen Homes said they aren't getting their money back for homes that were supposed to be built for them.

"Our address was going to be, I think it was 417 Sixth Street, out in Chamisa Hills," Wallen customer Chris Blunk said.

He now says his dream house from Wallen will never happen.

"This is everything we could have ever imagined, so the fact that we feel like we were emotionally and physically robbed," he said.

Blunk said in the last week, he paid a $3,000 deposit to the home builder. He learned this week that not only won't he get his home, the money he put down on it may also be gone.

Blunk said he will file a complaint with the attorney general's office.

"We were notified two days ago that Wallen was going to close their doors and all contracts that were just signed, they're going to be basically annulled," he said.

Eric Wallace, the CEO of the Pittsburgh-based company, said no one is to blame but the bad economy.

"Blame the banks and blame DC. The system is broken," he said. "We've tried everything we can.

Another Wallen customer who didn't want to be on camera said she was told the builder would break ground on her home next week. But on Thursday, she was told over the phone Wallen was no longer building her home.

Wallen's CEO said the company is trying to decide how to handle the customers who say they were cheated out of money.

Blunk said he just wants his money back.

"Three thousand dollars isn't a lot of money, but in this market and these times, this is a huge amount of money. This is money that my wife and myself we needed for a house," he said.

As a result of Wallen's decision, eight local Wallen employees found out Tuesday that they would be out of jobs by the end of the week. They said attempts to cash their paychecks were unsuccessful because the account had been frozen.