BxCapricorn

Foreclosures Actually Dropped (If You Don't Count Five States)

The reason foreclosures drop when you exclude FL, NV, CA, and NV is because that's where people retire to. The baby boomers, now retiring in greater numbers, leave behind homes elsewhere and builders built out these areas for them. The trend became a problem when the builders got together with mortgage bankers, home appraisers, banks and structured investments to create the illusion of demand. Michigan's numbers are obviously related to the dependence on the auto industry, as you know. The foreclosure problem is not a distorted because when you view the troubled bank list....

bankimplode.com/list/t...

you see banks in every state. Why? Four of the Five states were based on a speculation machine that eventually sent the risk to the far corners of the globe via investment vehicles. Following the lead of these "speculation states", local and regional banks funded the 2006/2007 vintages of mortgage-related craziness. Give it a few more months and you will see the impact on these other 46 states, in the form of FDIC Friday afternoon "bank closings". The loss in home value alone has cost local tax collectors billions. Do you think there was one politician that did not see a surplus of funds, generated by higher home valuations, as a long term guarantee to fund one boondoggle after another? You always seem to think short-term. You didn't work in the auto industry before becoming an educator, did you?