Mortgage & Loan: Foreclosure Of A Dream

It's a little old, but RealtyTrac posted a list of the top 10 foreclosure markets in the U.S. The news is chilling. To a man, each region blames the factors that contributed to the housing bubble in the first place: heavy use of adjustable-rate and interest-only loans with no money down, rising interest rates, and sluggish sales in the market. Take Hotlanta, for example:

Atlanta ranked eighth in the country in foreclosure rate, reporting one new foreclosure filing for every 107 households - more than three times the national average.

"Mortgage fraud, liberal lending practices, and inexperienced investors, along with corporate layoffs and slashed pension funds are contributing causes for the high foreclosure rate," said Atlanta real estate agent Ken McCall.

Here's an interesting article detailing how foreclosure isn't just a problem for "those people" anymore--it's now hitting even the affluent and the exurbian. The article astutely notes that the push for those huge McMansions drove buyers to stretch themselves beyond their means and well into risky territory, and now it's coming back to haunt them:

Pam acknowledged she didn't carefully read all the documents and hadn't fully realized that for the first two years, they would pay just the interest on the loan, and that the interest rate would reset this coming spring. They placed far too much trust in the broker, she said.

"As an accountant, I feel kind of stupid at this point," Pam said. "If you kind of place all your trust in somebody, and you think they're doing everything they can to help you and are looking out for your best interest, you're not sitting there picking it apart."

What's most heartbreaking about this is watching otherwise intelligent people drink the Kool-Aid in order to convince themselves that they're not being screwed, and that their broker let them do it.

And just proving that there's never a missed opportunity for parasites to profit off human misery, there are more instances of "foreclosure rescue" scam artists screwing strapped homeowners even worse.

Expect to see a lot more stories of this nature in the coming months.

Posted at December 3, 2006 05:55 PM

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It's a little old, but RealtyTrac posted a list of the top 10 foreclosure markets in the U.S. The news is chilling. To a man, each region blames the factors that contributed to the housing bubble in the first place: heavy use of adjustable-rate and interest-only loans with no money down, rising interest rates, and sluggish sales in the market. Take Hotlanta, for example: Atlanta ranked eighth in the country in foreclosure rate, reporting one new foreclosure filing for every 107 households - more than three times the national average. "Mortgage fraud, liberal lending practices, and inexperienced investors, along with corporate layoffs and slashed pension funds are contributing causes for the high foreclosure rate," said Atlanta real estate agent Ken McCall. Here's an interesting article detailing how foreclosure isn't just a problem for "those people" anymore--it's now hitting even the affluent and the exurbian. The article astutely notes that the push for those huge McMansions drove buyers to stretch themselves beyond their means and well into risky territory, and now it's coming back to haunt them: Pam acknowledged she didn't carefully read all the documents and hadn't fully realized that for the first two years, they would pay just the interest on the loan, and that the interest rate would reset this coming spring. They placed far too much trust in the broker, she said. "As an accountant, I feel kind of stupid at this point," Pam said. "If you kind of place all your trust in somebody, and you think they're doing everything they can to help you and are looking out for your best interest, you're not sitting there picking it apart." What's most heartbreaking about this is watching otherwise intelligent people drink the Kool-Aid in order to convince themselves that they're not being screwed, and that their broker let them do it. And just proving that there's never a missed opportunity for parasites to profit off human misery, there are more instances of "foreclosure rescue" scam artists screwing strapped homeowners even worse. Expect to see a lot more stories of this nature in the coming months.