Foreclosures hitting hard

[babylonsister]

Foreclosures hitting hard
By Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers



WASHINGTON — A central California agricultural town, the automobile capital of the world and a down-on-its-luck gambling hotspot had the nation's highest rates of foreclosure filings for the first half of 2007, according to real estate data released Tuesday.

Stockton, Calif., Detroit and Las Vegas — three areas with vastly different economies and demographic trends — have all been hit hard by the nation's growing foreclosure crisis, which is ravaging both major urban areas and Middle America.

Averaging one foreclosure filing for every 27 households during the first six months of 2007, Stockton had the highest filing rate among the 100 largest metro areas of the United States, according to RealtyTrac, a real estate data firm.

Located in the heart of California's famous Central Valley, where tomatoes, almonds, apricots, grapes and cotton are grown, Stockton and the surrounding area have become a respite for Bay Area and Southern California residents seeking cheaper housing costs.

In the Stockton metro area of San Joaquin County, foreclosure filings were made on 4,239 properties — more than double the number of the previous six months and more than three times that in the first six months of 2006, RealtyTrac reported.

Placing second with a rate of one filing for every 29 households was Detroit, where job losses in the auto industry have wreaked havoc on the local economy and housing market.

more...

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/18926.html

[neuvocat]

1. And it won't get better anytime soon.

It isn't just the problem with the loans and bad credit-there's a lot that people don't seem to know about home buying. People used to brag about their property values going up and up but just never got the grasp of the situation: property values outpaced wages which means that people can't afford to buy the homes after the prices skyrocket.


Also, upgrading to a new home means that the value of that home that they wanted to buy also went up in value, meaning that they were no better off than they were 15-20 years ago when they bought their little "fixer-upper".

[Sequoia]

2. Guess I'm glad I didn't buy a house.

What a mess, but then again, I do wish I had a nice big house.

[fed-up]

3. website w/foreclosure stats/monthly charts/state/county/city etc

http://www.foreclosures.com/stats/