Foreclosures Hit Record High
In recent news, if you haven’t already heard, supposedly home foreclosures have hit a 23 year record high, which means people are still having a hard time paying their mortgages, and the subprime mess may still have some long lasting effects on the banking industry, and more importantly, on the economy as a whole.
They are talking about the closing final quarter of 2007, since these statistics take time to gather, but as you know, news like that always affects the economy as it is today, because it may be a sign of things to come. The rate is pretty high too, that about almost one full percent of all homeowners are defaulting on their mortgage loans.
Even a higher and more alarming percentage in housing is that almost a whopping 6 percent of homeowners fell behind on their mortgage payments. It’s really crazy right now, because you see a lot of mortgage lenders adding a relief option to their websites, meaning they have basically been forced to offer some sort of settlement option to homeowners who are struggling to pay their mortgage payments on time, or at all. It’s truly a sign of the times, and mortgage companies are being forced to offer mortgages and determine eligibility criteria a bit more stringently now so that this crisis does not repeat itself.
I’m not sure if I am one who thinks this is going to correct itself any time soon. I like to be an optimist, but at the same time I can’t say confidently that I believe the whole housing market will bail out of trouble in the year 2008. We may be waiting a while folks, it seems a series of factors have not been on the people’s side for quite some time on this one.
