The nation’s foreclosure crisis ”” once largely confined to only a few corners of the country ”” is spreading to new areas as the economy teeters. The foreclosure rates in 40 of the nation’s counties that have the most households have already doubled from last year, a USA TODAY analysis of data from the listing firm RealtyTrac shows.
Most were in areas far removed from the avalanche of bad mortgages and lost homes that have hammered the U.S. housing market. Among the new areas: Boise and Green Bay, Wis.
“The ripple effect is just broadening out to cover a lot more places,” says Susan Wachter, who studies real estate and finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
In retrospect, the plan to suspend all payroll taxes is looking much better. If we were going to go this much into debt, at least it would have created jobs. This “stimulus” plan was just a raid on the Treasury by the Democrats to pay off their friends. (And yes, Republicans do the same thing – see the K Street plan of Tom Delay.)
I was very interested to see Horry County, South Carolina in the graphic accompanying this story as one of the counties with the highest percentage of foreclosures increasing over last year.
Horry County is better known as Myrtle Beach and surrounding area. There has been quite a bit of speculative building there over the last decade, and it is (I think) a bit more of a downscale demographic as compared to the other SC coastal communities, and thus more impacted by the recession.
One in five homes here in Los Banos, California, is in danger of foreclosure, and the unemployment rate is a staggering 21%. Our mayor and our Congressman recently testified before a committee of Congress about the dire situation here in Merced County. Barney Frank said that he and his committee would see what could be done about the situation…..and that’s ALL he did! Speaking for myself (and I’m retired), the answer is NOT to simply throw money at the situation in hopes of easing things; what is needed are JOBS, and I’m not talking about Target Stores, McDonald’s or Chili’s type of jobs, but manufacturing and high-tech jobs. Those who commute every day across the mountains to Silicon Valley complain about traffic and the high costs of that commute, the state wants to build a light rail system between the Central Valley and the Bay Area, where the jobs are, but costwise, it makes FAR more sense to put the jobs HERE!
The problem is, nobody’s listening, and people are suffering!