Foreclosures: The Worst-Hit Cities

High unemployment rates are joining other factors, such as bad mortgage lending and the bursting of the housing bubble, in driving up foreclosure rates throughout the country.

Sun Belt cities continued to show the highest foreclosure rates among metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 or more, according to report issued Thursday by RealtyTrac. The data show that cities in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona have 35 of the 50 metro areas worst-hit by foreclosures in the first half 2009.

But the data also show that places with high unemployment that had not previously been foreclosure hotspots have seen more activity in the past six months.

"Foreclosure activity continued its upward trajectory nationwide and in the majority of metro areas in the first half of the year, but there are some significant differences beginning to show up in the data," said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio in a statement. "While some of the markets that had the highest saturation of foreclosures over the past few years have seen declining rates, new markets like Provo, Utah, and Boise, Idaho, have seen large increases. As unemployment rates increase in different parts of the country, it's very likely that we'll see similar patterns develop elsewhere."

The Las Vegas area is number one on RealtyTrac's list, with one in 13 housing units in foreclosure, a rate of 7.45 percent. Here's the top ten:

Click here for RealtyTrac's report.

Comments

[crookedcountyillinois]

In Cook County (Chicago), they're actually taxing everyone who bought a home in 2005, 2006, and 2007 right now, even after everyone lost all the equity in their homes. I bought my home in 2006, and my taxes went up 45% in 2008, for no reason, other than that Cook County doesn't like that I bought my home in 2006.

To read more about this, check out my latest blog posting:

http://www.chicagogop.com/blog/1259-Board-of-Review-dodging-watchdog-Jenkins-FOIA-requests.html#comments

[lattedrinker]

I worked for 2 of the largest Title Insurance companies in the U.S.; First American Title, and Chicago Title. I can honestly say, that working for these companies from 2000 - 2006 as a manager, the insurance companies were well aware of the impending destruction to the housing crisis. You can talk about the robbery on Wall St. all you want, but when an Insurance Companies unwritten motto is "We make money when you buy your house, and LOOSE your house" there is something to worry about. Escrow, Loan, and Title companies were systematically destroying the Real Estate market.

Ethically, I could not work there anymore. I could not continue to work for an industry that allowed a 20yo female with kids and an out-of-work husband state they made $170k/year, when they did not. The two had come in after getting a loan approved to sign their escrow papers so they could move in to their new place. Sadly, they lost the house just 2 years later when their monthly payment went from @ $2,300.00/month to nearly $8,000.00/month because of the ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage Rider) which attached to their Deed of Trust that they were never told about. Yet, with thousands upon thousands of cases very similar to this, the industry that consisted of Real Estate agents, Escrow companies, Lenders, and Title Companies continued to turn a blind eye to the problem all in the name of money.

[kyosaku]

Kudos for your ethics.

Some buyers were dishonest. However, the lenders were making a lot of money up front and selling blocks of loans so, had no motivation to think of the future viability of those loans.

What about the fraud perpetrated by lenders?

A colleague nearly lost her home in 2006. They procured the original documents and discovered that the lender had added a zero to her husband's income after the papers were signed. The lender, when caught, made good.

My wife worked with a woman who left Countrywide, after the branch manager told her to forge a signature on a document by tracing it on a backlit window.

Another worked for a realty agent, the only license in a stable of 15 agents...not illegal, but shady. She quit when she learned that they were targeting Hispanic families that they new would fail an ARM, and flatly lying about their qualifications on the applications.

These are anecdotal and not evidence of widespread fraud. However, we know real people who have seen fraud "first hand." I hardly think we are alone with this knowledge. Who in the government is discussing making the industry accountable and why are they not taking action?

[PINO]

watchTVgetSTUPID wrote -- I blame Bush
_________________________

Sorry. But I think the American public knows who to blame, and that is the democrat party for the mortgage faliure.

Democrats Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXfAPyHpPZk

[MNTom]

The Dems were not in charge in 2004 when Bush tried to make these changes.

[sandiegoconservative]

The Bush administration went to Congress not once, but twice to warn against Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae lending practices, who have been the biggest culprits in this mess. Go listen to what Maxine Waters told them and then decide who was responsible.

[kyosaku]

The SEC is administrated, influenced and monitored largely by Wall Street insiders, the same guys who brought you the idea that the rich make us all richer, it "trickles down," and the current state of affairs; that, dare I day it, has not sent any of their kids to bed without a nice desert.

These same interests pay big money to lobby Democrats and Republicans alike. While there is some truth that the fatal deregulation really began under a Democratic administration, I think that the more dangerous decisions were made later.

Conflicts of interest in the world of regulating big business and finance are as plentiful as the bacteria that make up 90% of my cellular biological mass...yours too.

[kyosaku]

By the way, Greenspan has since commented that he was mistaken in assuming that the bankers and the financial elite had the necessary ethical principals and nobility to be trusted with less regulation. Think "Madoff" the golden boy of the SEC and the poster child of TARP. Tin cup my posterior!

[LeeCalif]

TJ-
How about some documentation like facts and sources.

Those people defaulted under Bush and only now are losing their houses.
Try for accuracy next time. Can't hurt.

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

I blame Bush

Here is YouTube of Bush pushing the Housing Bubble by removing traditional loan restrictions to the applause of mortgage lenders. Notice he is specifically targeting minorities with his scam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqQx7sjoS8&feature=related

[watchTVgetSTUPID]

This is how Bush single handedly Bankrupted America ... just like the other businesses he ran. Amazing, I never thought he could actually do it.

[LeeCalif]

Absolutely agree. He would make TV appearances crowing about the latest increase in
'Home Ownership' under his administration, again and again.

[TJCole]

1,529,000 American families have lost their homes since Obama took office, not counting July...and he is gonna spend $40,000 give it to a Republican for one week at Martha's Vineyard, and 75,000 will lose their homes that week alone at this rate..at the very least..!

[inorbit]

Obama did not cause this crisis and is trying to do something about it.

What is your point?

[lydiajean]

Frank, Waters , and Dodd were the biggest culprits. Look at your 2003 history when the dems were warned about this "everyone needs to own a home' philosophy they were pushing. The dems ruled the house and the senate....Wake Up.

[kyosaku]

To say that President Obama is responsible for the current state of our economy is akin to calling Louis Pasteur the cause of smallpox. Or blaming Abraham Lincoln for the Civil War, which in fact was suggested by some.

Determining cause and effect in human endeavours is precarious at best. It really doesn't matter now who caused it, except to have a chance to get a bit of our skins back.

Let us hope that this Man, who inherited a nightmare, can be more the solution than part of the problem.

[ibsteve2u]

You're not seeing the forest for the trees...that $40K MIGHT save one American family.

Me, I want my President well rested, and ready, willing, and able to do battle with all of the American People's enemies, whether external or internal.

And, sad to say, our biggest enemies happen to be internal...the "free traitors"...'scuse me - "traders" and "trickle-down" economics proponents.

[loki]

The numbers would be much larger if the GOP ran things. Sure, Obama is putting way to much money and time into coddling the capitalist who caused this mess, and really should focus on helping the American people, but he wont because he is a politician. Just like any health care reform will only benefit Insurance , drug and health care industries and not the people. We dont have the money of the lobbyist to get any political clout. But imagine if the GOP was in charge and McCAin Palin had won? You think that would have been better?

[bosha]

So I guess you forgot about the people who lost their homes before Obama took office. I'm going on vacation this year so what's your point?

[anothervoice]

...pretty sure he's spending his OWN money... Not the taxpayer's.

[chasmader]

I am a broker, based in San Francisco. I listed a short in Modesto as a favor for a friend. I was out there last week and it reminded me of the stories my grandparents told me of the Depression: Entire strip mall boarded up, house after house in foreclosure and as the city has no longer has a tax base, the roads are all torn up from lack of repair. Just very sad.

[DiverseBG]

If you visit any shopping center that lost a big store such as Gottschalks, Mervyns, or Circuit City for that matter, it gives you that western tumbleweed feel, it makes you wonder if mom and pops have a chance to return and thrive or ?

[1sparrow]

i heard riverside county has 50% foreclosure. not to confuse 15%. FIFTY--- or one out of two. forget about cutting school teachers. we are nearly half of half way to the bottom.

[DiverseBG]

1 out of 17, 5.73% of the homes in the inland area, Riverside county covers a huge area of homes. the information is listed above in this story, scroll up and it is #4 in the US... which is still awful by any standards.

[Wiseronenow]

I can't believe that Michigan isn't included in the top ten consider it has the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

[CoyoteMan]

In the Las Vegas area you should mention a huge number of abandoned houses. These houses are bug motels/spas. Some have been vandalized. And of course they bring down the property values in that neighborhood.
Clark County Pest Control people have been dispatched to get rid of some of the infestations but there are more abandoned homes than Pest Control people.

Eventually these infested homes will have to be torn down.

[PDQ]

Weren't they often sold to 'investors' as 'income properties' ? There weren't enough people in the Las Vegas area to move into them when they were built, so it's no wonder they're still empty!!