(Denver) Foreclosures soar - Home defaults hit highest level since '88

[UpInArms]

Foreclosures soar

Home defaults hit highest level since oil bust days of '88

More than 11,000 real estate foreclosures have been filed in the seven-county Denver area through November, about 18 percent more than in all of last year.

And public trustees are estimating that 2004 will end with about 12,290 foreclosures, making it the second-worst year on record.

Only 1988, when there were 17,122 foreclosures, topped this year. Last year, 9,431 foreclosures were filed, which had been the second-worst year.

And there's no sign of a slowdown, even as the economy picks up steam.

"They just keep coming in droves," said Bonny Kovtynovich, deputy public trustee in Adams County.

...more...

[Sirveri]

1. Just wait until the interest rates start ticking back up.

Then all hell will break lose.

[solinvictus]

2. Easy loans and poor economy...

This has been the case for the past few years. Now with the Fed raising prime and more McJobs, it's going to happen more often.

[Just Me]

3. Isn't this merely further verification of what has been happening,...

,...across the country IN SPITE of low rates?

It's looking more and more like,..."quicksand",...except,...there CAN'T be a bailout 'cause the rest of the world HAS to pull out (with the weak dollar and all).

Oh, well. The great thing about impoverished, rural America is that,...we barely feel the fall,...

[hatrack]

4. Article last week - Phoenix metro foreclosures 300 per week

Now, what was that hoo-hah about the economy improving? :eyes:

[gaia_gardener]

6. Well my attorney friends

are finding jobs - doing foreclosures. Not what any of them wanted to be doing, but they pay well.

[Skittles]

16. I would not want do do that crap for a living

for ANY amount of money

[Cooley Hurd]

19. And you have the vultures who buy forclosed property...

...for a fraction of their worth, turn it into a multi-family dwelling, fill it with renters and then let the property decay.

It's a slum-lord housing market...:grr:

[Skittles]

20. it's a business filled with bloodsuckers

:puke:

[Career Prole]

5. Why sure...but ain't that stock market doin' just grand?

And the 'raqi people are havin' elections real soon.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Correct me if I am wrong

but wasn't 1988 the great year of the Reagan Economy?

Just checking... but people still vote for pugs thinking they will do better.

[flygal]

13. I moved to Denver in early '89 and there were no jobs

I remember real estate was almost free! It was crazy what you could get a house for.

[mrdmk]

17. Yep!

California did not recover until after 1995.

[serryjw]

8. I don't know where you live BUT I live in Denver

There are NO jobs in the paper. Sales are the LAST jobs to go and the FIRST to come back when the economy rebounds and there are 3 columns in the Sunday paper. The new trick companies are continuing is to hire you for under 32 hours so you are NOT full time. Variable interest rates, easy qualifing and slow economy is an 'accident waiting to happen"....and here it is.

I posted last week that I did some Xmas shopping because we had 'secret Santa' at work. I went D/T,KMART & Target....NO TRAFFIC, I waited for ONE person at each store while in line.
When Walmart lowered their sales projections for this season we KNEW this was all Bushit and the economy S*CKS.

[sandnsea]

15. Same today

I was shocked. I have never seen the parking lots so empty, not any time of year. I got some good deals though, so that was nice.

[serryjw]

9. This is insane.........

quote........
The buyer paid about $150,000 for the home two years ago, but then refinanced about every six months, until he had about $210,000 in debt on it.

"With a $210,000 mortgage, it is clearly upside down," Bauer said.

Bauer's client's offer of $155,000 was rejected.

"My guess is the bank is going to end up selling it in the $160,000s," Bauer said.
end quote.......


http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/real_estate/article/0,1299,DRMN_414_3317736,00.html

[cavanaghjam]

10. Numbers alone as statistics

are less meaningful than when used as a percentage, due to rising population, especially in growth areas like Denver. Still, many Americans are one paycheck away from bankruptcy. Many more are paying only the interest on their credit cards, and usurious interest at that.

All it will take is a mild economic slowdown to toss the housing market into the dumpster. Strangely, what will happen will not so much be a large reduction in house prices as it will be the upper income brackets buying houses and leasing/renting them back to the original owners who will by then be working 75hrs/wk at just over minimum wage to barely make the payments.

[EC]

11. Par for the course

1987 stock market collapses, then record foreclosures...it's the NeoCon way...

[Sydnie]

12. Guess that puts a whole new meaning on the "ownership society"

now doesn't it? Guess he meant when the "banks" own something not the people. Makes sense -- when the banks own your house THEY have a stake in seeing that loans are easier to get so that they can get the properties off their books and back to making them money.

bush* can kiss my ass -- ownership indeed!

[MileHiStealth]

14. Who's buying the new homes ???

Thousands of $350,000 + homes being built
southeast of Aurora (suburb of Denver).
Most people around here can't find a
full time job and United is cutting 200
jobs at DIA in January. Already got rid of shitloads
of mechanics and have baggage handlers flagging in
the planes and doing preliminary safety inspections.
Does that make you feel safe ???

[katmondoo]

18. I have wondered about this for a long time

Where is everyone getting the money for 350 thousand dollar homes? What kind of jobs support this kind of lifestyle? Here in Florida a lot of elderly have huge expensive homes, I missed out on all this. What kind of pensions do they have to maintain this lifestyle. I fear all will end and these huge houses will be up for sale with no takers, kind of similar to the mansions of in the early part of the 20th century when even the wealthy could no longer afford that lifestyle, not enough cheap labor and the introduction of taxes ended that era. Something will end this one too. What I do not know.

[KayLaw]

21. Funny numbers

I haven't been around much the past two days, but the latest article in the New York Post, which examines the way the government calculates and reports numbers, is especially interesting.

The true unemployment number is closer to 10% when you add the underemployed - part-timers who can't find full-time jobs, etc. Not in this article, but in another from that paper, the birth/death model is discussed. Everytime a business closes, those lost jobs are counted as new jobs because of the theory that whenever one business shuts down, one like it will crop up. They just started this last year.

I think it's best to keep your eyes open and beware the governmental propaganda.

http://nypost.com/business/36874.htm