Bakersfield Baking In The Foreclosure Oven
One out of every 47 houses is popping into the foreclosure oven making it one of the hottest cities in the grips of the reigning real estate crisis. It ranks 8th among the leading 100 cities buzzing with foreclosure activity during the first half of this year. The figures have been released by one of the premier tracking groups online, based in Irvine.
The apprehension is that things are going to get worse. 82 of this group of 100 consisting of the prime metro cities in USA are reporting a year-over-year escalation in the number of foreclosures. The numbers are taking everyone by surprise. Things were bad but nobody thought it was that bad. Kern County stood 8th in the first quarter of this year.
According to reliable figures the foreclosure pot continues to boil in California. Stockton, Sacramento and the combined Riverside and San Bernardino region having the dubious distinction of being including among the top 10 rankers. The tracking group makes use of records given out by the counties. The figures are inclusive of default notices, pending lists, sales by trustees and real estate owners. Stockton ranked first. Here one out of every 27 units came under the foreclosure cloud. Among the prime ten defaulters were Las Vegas, Detroit, Denver, Miami, Memphis, Tenn. and Cleveland. The least foreclosure activity was noticeable in Richmond and Va.
The foreclosure fall out is the result of many factors – mismanagement of sub-prime mortgages combined with general economic ill health of the country leading to unemployment. If the reasons are multifarious the results too are many pronged. With too many houses up for sale the real estate prices are plummeting. This is touching those units that are not directly under the foreclosure hammer. The mortgage industry has tightened its belt with the result that there are not enough buyers for houses. The banks are sitting with idle properties and empty coffers. This is sending alarm signals to brokers in Wall Street. The Wall Street sneeze is making international stock markets catch a cold. Closer home vacant houses are happy hunting grounds for vagrants and addicts leading to law and order problems. A new group of advisers have cropped up trying to help foreclosure victims. Politicians take this as an opportune moment to fish in troubled waters and make loud noises about cooling the heat and switching off the oven.
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