Foreclosures leave 18.6 million homes vacant in the US. Most in recorded US history

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://business.smh.com.au/business/foreclosures-leave-18m-homes-empty-in-us-20080725-3l0q.html

Foreclosures leave 18m homes empty in US
M. Howley
July 26, 2008

THE number of vacant houses in US hit an all-time high in the second quarter as the real estate recession pushed home owners into foreclosure.

A total of 18.6 million US homes stood empty, more than at any time in recorded history, as lenders seized a record number of properties. The figure was 6.9 per cent higher than a year earlier, the Census Bureau reported on Thursday.

The collapse of the mortgage market caused by a surge in loan defaults last year has prompted more than $US467 billion ($487 billion) in credit losses and asset writedowns at the world's biggest financial firms. This week US legislators reached agreement on a modified version of a plan by the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, to inject capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federally chartered mortgage buyers which own or guarantee almost half of the outstanding $US12 trillion of the US's mortgage debt.

"Every foreclosure creates an instant vacancy, and it tends to stay that way for some period of time as banks try to figure out what to do with these properties," said Brian Bethune, the chief US financial economist at Global Insight, in Lexington, Massachusetts.

[Union Thug]

1. Gee, what happened to the "ownership society?" n/t

[ixion]

13. it got pwned

by "the market"

[glowing]

2. And exactly where are those families ending up? Apt. rentals are down

as well. People are on the streets, in run-down hotels, and living with family/ friends.... This country can and should be better than this... This is just one of the reasons to Impeach BushCo.. they are killing America.. and we can't afford to wait until January to let them continue destroying the Republic.. or even worse, allow some sort of Martial Law situation to errupt.

[Warpy]

5. A lot of them have moved in with family

especially family whose own living situation is iffy and who can use the income, help with the kids and with maintenance, or whatever.

The problem with all that empty housing is that it becomes a magnet for vandals, vagrants and vermin. Abandoned swimming pools produce mosquitoes that carry disease. Vandals tear out plumbing and wiring for the price of the metal, usually flooding the place and making it uninhabitable. Addicts squat indoors in bad weather, creating a neighborhood nuisance and catching on fire a lot.

Much of the housing now vacant will eventually have to be torn down both as unsafe and as a community nuisance.

This country can and should be a lot better than this, but successive conservative administrations from both parties over the last 39 years have allowed the wealthy to wage economic warfare against the rest of us. This is just the endgame, and it's going to have to get a lot worse before what has happened finally sinks in to the people it has happened to.

[glowing]

12. I'm not sure it has to get much worse... I think its pretty bleak already..

I think that the only way to make sure we start winning is to make sure as many people as possible show up and vote this fall... We need to register and make sure they get to the polls.. then they can't steal the election. Its the only way. As it is we are already starting a million votes down. We have to have many, many people show up.. and just as many standing in voting precints to make sure that there aren't any "problems" and any "problems" are well noted and documented on film.

[billyoc]

3. What do you mean, my pile of sticks and sheetrock isn't worth $600K?!

Fucking idiots.

[MikeNearMcChord]

4. Watch for the rise of squatters occupying these vacant homes

Especially with the onset of cold weather.

[dysfunctional press]

8. they'll also have every bit of metal stripped from them...

and some of them will burn down when squatters build fires to keep warm.

but- it does seem fairly incongruent(and downright embarrassing) for an industrialized nation to have an overabundance of both homeless people and vacant homes...:wtf:

i mean...the answer seems fairly obvious...doesn't it...? especially if we're the ones bailing out the lenders who hold the paper on the vacant homes.

[Canuckistanian]

6. That must mean a similar rise in homelessness

Because it seems like affordable housing has NOT been a growth industry in America.

[GOPisEvil]

7. Those of us that pay homeowner's insurance will pay more too.

Vacant houses lead to squatters and/or arsonists.

[lonestarnot]

9. And what has happened to all the people that once occupied those repos?

Are they living in other homes with other family members, did they move to an apartment, or are they under a bridge? Where they hell did they go?

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. Some are renting rooms from others trying to save their homes from foreclosure

[Trajan]

10. Wow .... that is a LOT of product ....

Funny thing happens when you purposely suppress wages: People eventually cannot support a rising marketplace, and it comes crashing down ...

Good thing the big bankers have our tax money to save them ....

Ownership indeed ....

[24HRrnr]

14. The article is based on a Census report

that can be found here.

No reason is given in the report for the vacancy rate. To assume that the reason for the vacancy rate increase of 6.9 percent (per the author) is solely due to foreclosure is probably to make a significant error.

For example, home building is continuing, though at a reduced rate, and inventory of new homes is climbing (up about 35% from 2006).

Similarly, in my market, which has been solid, inventory has climbed as people move elsewhere and homes take longer to close.

Still not fully a buyers market in housing but it's getting closer.