From one of our local papers:
Last year, one out of every 17 homes in Oceanside’s 92057 ZIP code entered foreclosure in this northeast corner of the city, according to data from RealtyTrac, a foreclosure tracking service, and the San Diego Association of Governments. Those numbers do not include December foreclosures.
The resulting effects, shown in a North County Times analysis of foreclosure and sale listing data, in that ZIP code illustrate the pandemic nature of the county’s, and the nation’s, housing crisis:
— For every nonforeclosed home for sale, there are about four to five homes in, or in serious danger of, foreclosure.
— Half of the area’s 36 December home sales were foreclosures.
— Just less than half of the month’s sales, 44 percent, sold for more than 10 percent below the original listing price. One home sold for 37 percent lower than the original listing, a $142,400 freefall.
— Of homes for sale in the beginning of January, 65 percent of 362 listings are either in some stage of foreclosure or on sale for less than the previous sale price or total loan amount.
“I think there’s more people that have lost their homes than actually still live here,” said Courtney Jones.
Many of the foreclosed families here said they were sent into foreclosure when their subprime loans graduated from the initial “teaser” rate — a low interest rate generally offered for only the first two or three years of a 30-year mortgage — to a higher adjustable interest rate.
But 30 miles northeast and across the Riverside County line, it is clear the spike in regional foreclosures knows no credit score. There, the city of Murrieta saw one of every nine homes enter foreclosure last year.
I’ve been following the housing mess pretty closely, mostly on Calculated Risk. I really feel for the people that are suffering from this bubble bursting, especially the families getting hurt.
I hope all those who profited from creating this mess are happy. I often wonder how some of them can sleep at night. It must be a lot easier to live without a conscience.
3 Responses
I am always saddened by individual stories of folks losing homes. Statistics overwhelm sometimes, and sad human loss often disappears in them.
I think the mess is partly to be placed on lenders/brokers, and partly on buyers. Again, statistics tell me nothing about the individual case. Some folks got into buying/selling homes as if they were playing the stock market. Some folks naively thought home prices could only go up. I think also the great American myth (I have substituted the word “myth” for “dream”) has sadly placed “nice” addresses and square footage above other considerations when the emotionally charged word “home” is used.
Here in Florida we lead by some statistic in this mess. I saw it this morning, maybe it was percentage increase in foreclosures over last year, or something. A really high percentage of sales in the go-go years just ended (at least here in central Florida) were flat-out speculation; more homes were being built and sold than there were new residents to occupy them. It was crazy stupid (but not as crazy stupid as the Miami area condo speculation boom).
Anyway, sad times, sad times.
California isn’t much better off, Gerry. There’s a lot of blame to go around, but mostly it is the decision of the country as a whole to live in illusion land for many years now instead of doing something to provide true economic growth in this country. The “sprawlconomy” was created and pushed specifically to keep the consumer spending. By taking out big home equity loans people could feel wealthy even though they were actually going into debt. It is a sad, sad thing indeed. The housing bubble is the worst exploitation of a people by its government I’ve ever seen. Instead of giving us productive jobs with increasing incomes, they bled off our real wealth and gave it to the rich in tax cuts while making the rest of us poorer and letting us feel good about it by having equity loans to let us buy cheap crap from China.
It is a massive stupidity that will take us many, many years to recover from, and will ultimately destroy our national leadership of the world.
Bread and circuses, indeed.
A little thought has been nagging me for a while, but I have hesitated to express it because I know virtually nothing of economics (except I think the whole subject is pretty much voodoo). That thought is this: we appear to have been operating for a very long time on a model which says if growth is slow or non-existent, we’re in deep trouble. No one ever seems to question this. The nagging part is this: can growth be never-ending and infinite? Logic says “no” but we appear to have no plan for a steady-state economy or world (and we shouldn’t even mention the word “contracting”).
Isn’t it inevitable? We cannot have an always-increasing world population, can we? Absent new “consumers” doesn’t the “grow or die” model break down?
Maybe I’m too dumb to get it.