Foreclosures in Pittsburgh

August 19th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosures

Foreclosures in Pittsburgh are alarming with seven neighbourhoods reeling under the crisis. In some places the rates are as high as 1:140. Despite the fact that Pittsburgh foreclosure numbers are relatively lower than other regions but that does not alleviate the pain of the individuals suffering it. Nor does it give relief to the locality lashed by foreclosure waves – even though the waves are not too high.

At a news conference Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said, “Although Pittsburgh foreclosures are among the lowest in the nation, one foreclosure is too many.” Various groups and agencies teamed up with the Mayor to persuade the residents facing foreclosure to come forward and seek help. The Mayor reiterated that the goal is to see that families stay in the houses that are their homes. This way the localities will “remain stable and prosperous.” At the meeting he presented the statistics of the neighbourhood collected by Pittsburgh Neighborhood and Community Information System. Also partnering in these measures are Carnegie Mellon University Center of Economic Development, The Pittsburgh Partnership for Neighborhood Development, the Community Technical Assistance Center, Pittsburgh Center for Social and Urban Research (University of Pittsburgh) and 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania.

Quoting figures released by PMI Group, Ravenstahl showed that Pittsburgh stood first as a region with the ‘least risky’ housing loans in the country. In 2007 there were 1,200 foreclosures showing a decrease of 15% from 2006. The fall in the foreclosure rate shows an increase in number of house owners – nothing could be better news in this bad foreclosure weather raging all around.

Dan Sullivan a mortgage foreclosure specialist commented that compared to places like Cleveland and Detroit, Pittsburgh foreclosure numbers are much lower. The figures are of course high for the locals and “there’s a possibility they are going to be higher in the next couple of years.” This is mainly because of the many sub-prime loans with floating interest that will soon reset to higher notches.

The Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Agency has two programmes. It had been kicked off the previous year. REAL (Refinance to an Affordable Loan) will sanction 30 year fixed rate loans to those under threat of foreclosures for having initially taken a ARM loan that they cannot manage now. For the time being initially $5 million has been sanctioned for the programme to help 45 borrowers across the state. 80 lenders are participating in the operations.