Communities Where Foreclosure Increases Top 1,000%

by Peter G. Miller
November 14th, 2007

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Anyone look at the latest metro foreclosure figures from RealtyTrac, the foreclosure data and property listings company?

It is absolutely amazing to see some of the numbers.

If we rank metro areas by the ratio of foreclosures to households, then the top five are Stockton, CA (one foreclosure for every 31 households), Detroit/Livonia/Dearborn (1 for 33), Riverside/San Bernadino (1 for 43), Fort Lauderdale (1 for 48) and Las Vegas/Paradise (also 1 for 48).

However, if we look at foreclosure increases during the past year then some of the numbers are even more astounding:

Springfield, MA — foreclosures up 1,169.8%.

Boston/Quincy, MA — up 1,274.4%.

Cambridge/Newton/Framingham — up 1,552.1%.

Bethesda/Frederick/Gaithersburg, MD — up 1,640.7%.

Places like Bethesda and Newton are among the most expensive suburban communities you can find. If they are being impacted by the foreclosure meltdown, then what about communities which are more typical of where we live as a Nation?

RealtyTrac has been criticized during the past few years by the lending community because of alleged numerical sins. It’s been better for lenders to dispute minor points than to confront the real issue raised by RealtyTrac, something is radically wrong with the lending system and it impacts us all.

Of course, had lenders acted like the FHA and demanded both appraisals and full documentation a lot of what we are seeing would not have happened — but then a lot of commission income would have been lost, a lot of quarterly results would have been smaller and a lot of executive bonuses and stock options would have been reduced.

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