" Mortgage defaults continue to set new records. Foreclosures continue to set new records. Home repossessions by banks continue to set new records. The number of homes being constructed and the number of Americans applying for home loans is at stunningly low levels. For decades, owning a home has been touted as the very heart of "the American Dream", but today that dream is out of reach for an increasing number of Americans. Why? It is because there are not nearly enough jobs for everyone."
You can read the read the rest of that good news at The American Dream. You can look to see if your city is on this recent "Case-Shiller Price Cumulative Declines From Peak" graph over on Calculated Risk.
This is my advice to you if you have lost your job and face home foreclosure: Walk Away. Things are so fucked-up right now that doing so is the only thing that would make sense for you and your family if you unfortunately land in such a situation.
Ugly House Photos has even more lovely pictures of Phoenix neighborhoods. The more people that walk away from messes like these, the better.
2 comments:
Interesting that the graph shows absolutely no letup in foreclosures in the present year. On the contrary.
We've had our house on the market for four months (we found a really interesting house in Oct. and bought it contingent on the sale of our present house) and there's been nary a nibble. We're not motivated much to sell, but it shows how flat the market is in WI.
In the 1980's my family lost a farm and farm equipment business to the same situation - forclosures drive the price down, thusly driving the overall value of YOUR property down, and even if you had a conservative mortgage it doesn't take much to put you under water. Then the banks have rules about what they can carry on underwater loans, too many and the bank is out of business by the FDIC. Too many banks out of business, and nobody buys the paper for mortgages, and nobody can get credit because the banks become risk adverse because of the number of underwater loans they already have in stock.
The difference this time it is the entire country rather than just the midwest. We had customers commit suicide over losing property. NO PROPERTY is worth that kind of stress. Walk off and let somebody else figure it out!!! It's just a house.
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