Housing - from caddman on the FOOL
Are we seeing the start of consumer capitulation?
Remember central Indiana has the cheapest homes in terms of median income/median home price in the country. For those of you on the coast, do not be shocked at what we pay for homes.
But this is getting scary...
indystar.com
Favorite snips:
"Now several homes in Morningside are for sale, and Green figures the glut has cut the value of her home to about $90,000 from the $125,000 she paid for it."
"Whatever the cause, Indiana suffers from one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. About 2.56 percent of Indiana's 619,889 mortgages were in foreclosure as of June 30, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association of America. Only Ohio had a higher rate at 2.59 percent. The national average is 1.12 percent."
"In the first year her $784 monthly payments were manageable. But in the second year they jumped to $1,084, and she realized she in effect had paid $131,000 for the house instead of the original $125,000."
"Then she was laid off from teaching computer classes at ITT Technical Institute. The lost income sparked a series of negotiations with her mortgage holder to stave off foreclosure.
She said she couldn't refinance because, with nearby properties for sale, the home's value had dropped."
"said Mildred Wilkins, who spent three years as a foreclosure specialist at Fannie Mae and now often speaks to homeowner groups.
She said the result has been to put people in mortgages they cannot afford.
"They don't ask the questions, and they're given half-answers to the ones they do ask," Wilkins said. "They could not afford it the day they signed, and were deluded into believing they could."'" |
