The Story Of 2008 Is Dotted With Upswings In Foreclosures, Gas And Employment

December 30th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosure

Looking back as the year draws to a close, the story of 2008 is dotted with upswings in foreclosure, gas and employment figures. It was a year of headaches and depression for the common man in the streets of America. Nobody has been left untouched.
The scene was and is dominated by foreclosure numbers both locally and nationally. Petitions for foreclosures reached record high numbers.
In Manatee County court lenders filed over 5,500 foreclosure suits during 2008. In 2007 the number was 2,620. The foreclosure rate here is 1:33 for the year. The worst affected region is Sarasota-Bradenton-Venice metropolitan zone.
Florida was one of the top foreclosure offending states with related problems about credit squeeze, unemployment and plummeting real estate. By the end of the year about one of every six mortgages in this state was in some stage of foreclosure.
The foreclosure crisis was preceded by the sub-prime mortgage. This was followed by prime borrowers succumbing to default and foreclosures. Al the gains from the housing boom has been snatched away. Many of the houses are underwater with the loan amount being bigger than the worth of the house.
The foreclosure flood ravaged not only the residential houses and condos but also the developers and builders of both commercial and residential projects. One of the victims was a condo tower in Palmetto that is undergoing completion and is part of the proposed Bradenton condominium complex.
The Congress has sanctioned a jumbo rescue bill last summer that granted $300 million for various foreclosure prevention programmes. For some time The Governor Charlie Crist toyed with the idea of imposing a freeze on foreclosures but he changed his tactics to asking the lenders in the state to voluntary grant a holiday from foreclosures during the festive season. It showed little results, as the national lenders were not included. They owned most of the mortgages in Florida and had filed the majority of the foreclosure suits.
The condition of the local real estate and mortgage markets continued to be chaotic despite the various measures initiated at local, state and federal levels. The sales number continued to fall, as buyers became more and more cautious waiting for better deals. The sellers continued to drop their asking prices trying to get rid of the burden. The continued flow of foreclosed houses into the market is aggravating matters. Defaults are also rising.
Via