Jun 1, 2008 - McClatchy Tribune Business News
Jun. 1--Virtually everyone is suffering from a mortgage hangover.
Even homeowners who never have missed a payment. Even people who already have paid off their mortgages. Even renters. The financially lethal cocktail of risky high-rate mortgages and naive borrowers has taken a toll in many neighborhoods across central Ohio. A wave of foreclosures during recent years has pushed property values downward for the first time in decades, a ispatch analysis found. Thousands of families have lost their dream homes. Their neighbors, surrounded by orange foreclosure stickers and for-sale signs, have seen their homes lose value as abandoned houses blight their communities.
And many renters have been pushed out of the r homes because of their landlords' problems. The worst might still lie ahead. Interest rates are scheduled to jump this year and next on another round of high-rate mortgages, known as subprime loans -- typically adding hundreds of dollars to monthly mortgage payments. "Subprime is going to destroy neighborhoods," said Bill Faith, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio. "It's hurt more people than it ever helped. It encouraged a culture of recklessness by everyone." To measure the damage and the looming challenges, The Dispatch has investigated the effects of the mortgage meltdown.
The three-day series kicks off today. Mortgage stories -- Bursting bubbles -- Tax relief not coming as house values slide -- Tax appraisals factor out foreclosures -- Benjamin J. Marrison commentary: Housing-crisis series merits close attention
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1 comments:
Ohio is the tip of the iceberg that melted first. The other 49 states will report soon.
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