12 September 2007
Foreclosure doesn't just happen to people who don't make their mortgage payments. Your homeowner's association (HOA) can take your house or condo if you're not careful. In one case, a disabled California man lost his home in a foreclosure sale because he was $123 behind on his homeowner's dues. The house was worth $280,000. Unfair? Abusive? You bet!Read More »
Foreclosures Affect Us All. Learn About Proposed Laws In Your State.
By Gina GardnerNFNS Columnist
The spike in home foreclosures isn't just bad news for the poor sucker down the street who's losing his house–we're all poor suckers, but most of us don't know it yet. Foreclosures in the neighborhood can tank the value of your own home, and a rash of foreclosures can turn nice parts of town into graffiti-ridden eyesores as owners leave and renters or squatters move in. A study in Chicago, The Impact of Single-Family Mortgage Foreclosures (PDF), indicated that the social costs of rising foreclosure rates include increases in violent crime and family dysfunction.
And finally, Marketwatch claims that foreclosures in the US have caused instability in our stock markets and created a domino effect on financial markets throughout the entire world.
Every state in the US is either considering or has enacted legislation regulating the lending, real estate, and credit counseling industries more carefully, providing emergency bailout loans for homeowners who qualify, adding counseling services for homeowners, scrapping non-judicial foreclosure, and other solutions designed to protect homeowners from foreclosure.
So if you own a home, send kids to school, prefer to walk around your town without being mugged or worse, or do any investing, the foreclosure crisis affects you. And you should care. Check out the 2007 Foreclosure Legislation site, which lists pending or newly enacted legislation in your state, and if it makes sense to you let your representatives know that you support it.
About the Author
Gina Gardner writes for an online media company specializing in mortgage and business issues. Her career highlights include auditing and tax with Deloitte, systems consulting with Experian, and loan consulting with Centex. She earned her degree in Financial Management from the University of Nevada.