08-15-07, 09:47 AM
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Metro Home Foreclosures Surge in May - Metro Detroit | |
Metro Home Foreclosures Surge in May - Metro Detroit
Job losses blamed for dismal figures
which are expected to further decrease house
Nathan Hurst / The Detroit News
Quote:
Significantly more Metro Detroit homeowners faced foreclosures on their homes in May than a year ago, an indication the region's housing market woes are far from over.
According to data released Tuesday by RealtyTrac, an industry research firm, the number of homes in the foreclosure process statewide jumped 87 percent in May compared with the same month last year, and 37.6 percent from last month.
That's a disappointing downward turn for the state, which saw a 20.1 percent decrease in foreclosures from March to April.
Continued fallout from recent subprime mortgage deals gone bad has continued to drive up the number of foreclosures in Michigan, said Bob Walters, chief economist at Rock Financial in Livonia, a mortgage firm that doesn't deal in the subprime market.
But continued job losses in Michigan are also driving foreclosures up, according to Daren Blomquist, spokesman for Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac.
"In Detroit, homes are foreclosing for more traditional reasons, like losing a job or a continuing downturn of the economy," he said.
Overall, Michigan ranked eighth among states for the highest rate of foreclose, with one in every 448 homes in foreclosure.
In Metro Detroit, the numbers are even more dismal:
# Wayne County: 4,336 foreclosure filings in May, up 84.2 percent over last year, and up 50.6 percent from April, affecting one in every 190 homes.
# Oakland County: 1,162 filings, up 140.6 percent year over year, 58.5 percent since April, affecting one of every 423 homes.
# Macomb County: 950 filings, up 140.5 percent over last May, 29.4 percent since April, affecting one of every 337 homes.
# Livingston County: 41 filings, up 156.3 percent over last May, up 127.8 percent over April, affecting one in 1,437 homes.
The RealtyTrac numbers, however, likely are slightly inflated. Rather than counting the number of unique households in foreclosure, the study counts the number of foreclosure-related legal filings, which could result in some properties being double- or triple-counted.
Walters, the Rock Financial economist, said the spike in foreclosures likely will spur a continuation of dramatically dropping prices in the region, due to the rapid increase in supply of homes.
"This is a vicious cycle," he said. "When home prices drop, it keeps causing more pain for home owners. More people are getting desperate in situations like this."
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Last edited by Scrub; 08-15-07 at 09:48 AM.
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