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Utah ranks 9th in U.S. in foreclosures

It is truly sad that so few Utahns, particularly those who are LDS, did not listen to their church leaders who for decades have been warning members to stay out of debt, live within their means, and buy only as much house as they can actually afford now, not what they think they'll be able to afford in 3-5 years (ARM loans, Interest Only loans, etc). There are few, if any, members who heeded this counsel completely who now find themselves in foreclosure. That Utah is #9 out of 50 states in foreclosures is an indictment of those who thought they knew better than those who warned them about this current downturn. Wasn't in 1999 that Pres. Hinckley spoke of Pharoah's dream of years of plenty and years of famine (scarcity) and warned the world that the time had come to put our houses in order financially?

It is sad when someone loses their home, but not so sad when the home they're losing was more home than they should have purchased in the first place. Live within your means, pay off your debts, and listen to the warning you receive. If ye are prepared ye shall not fear.

Like the Jefferson's, Utah is movin' on up and will be in top three by late spring of 2009 in my opinion.

A number of our neighbors (AZ, NV, CA) began purging their markets of homes that people purchased, but could never afford a couple of years ago. The much needed correction is finally starting to pick up some steam here.

This is great news in that afforability is slowly being introduced into the housing market again in Utah. However, it has a long way to go. The number of delusional home sellers is still extremely high. A majority still can't come to grips with the fact that their home isn't and was never actually worth what they thought it was worth and still think it is worth.

Foreclosure's will also translate into greater stability in housing and the financials in the long-run as well. They system needs to purge itself and prices still need to drop dramatically. This trend will continue for some time. All hail the market correction. Onward and upward.

What?
Foreclosers in Utah?
9th in the nation?
Can't be.
Things like this just don't happen in Pleasantville.
Must be more lies the liberals made up.

I always loved to hear all the dumb analysts who kept saying "Utah won't see such a big housing crisis as the rest the nation because our economy is so different.......blah, blah, blah." The only difference is that we lag by a couple of years. I have tried to tell people for a couple of years now that I watched this same cycle happen in California from 2003-2006. The market must correct because wages can't support the current prices. If you bought more than you could afford and now can't make your payments, too bad. You should have thought of that when you were buying.

To Shamefaced at 4:39am: Your point is well taken, LDS should have listened to their leader. But you're trying to fix the leg that isn't broken. Yes, some Utahns live beyond their means, but that's not what's going on here. Many Utahns lose their homes because housing is so grossly unaffordable and Utahns don't make enough money to purchase even a modest home at 1500 sq ft. When the average wage in Utah is in the high 40s and the mean price for homes is in the 220s that spells economic disaster. These well-intentioned people, who give 10% of their wages to their church, can't afford a small, modest home. But they rationalize it believing that "the Lord will provide" because "I pay my tithing." You wonder why Utah is in the financial mess it's in. As I close, let me recommend Elizabeth Warren's book, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke (Basic 2003). Warren, a Harvard law professor, offers an eye-popping account of why Americans lose their homes--and much else.

There ain't no dang foreclosures in Utah.
Why?
Cuz this is the place!

Liberals are lying agin'!

It must be the liberals fault that LDS republicans had to keep up with the Joneses.
I find it funny that so many people put themselves in that position out of greed and ego.
It's sad how few people listen to their church leader's advice when they want a bigger house than their neighbors.

There are many non-LDS people here. Assuming that all foreclosures are among the LDS only is wrong. The LDS make up ~60% of the population in Utah, of which, only 36% is active. That means that 64% of the people you see are not living like mormons. This is a national problem, not a mormon problem.

I have a family member in another part of the country who is losing a house because of several reasons-but one of them is living beyond his/her means.

What happened is when the economic downturn affected this family, (they are self-employed) they could not longer to afford to live in their house. A home equity loan is also part of the problem and I'm concerned now they won't be able to get the money out of it they need to live on.

I'm very sad to see this happening to them, but there is a lesson here.

Live below your means, if possible! Things happen so don't always be on the edge. Don't buy into the advertising hype that you have to have the best and the newest.

Speculation in the housing market, irresponsible loans by uncrupulous lenders have added to the problem.

When will we learn in this country that you can't expect to get (or keep) "something for nothing?"

I had multiple people tell me to get an ARM or interest only loan and pull the money out of my house to invest or buy toys. These people are now hating life, nothing is worse than having a house payment that keeps going up and you can not afford to pay it and you have a worthless college degree from a state run college.

Governor Huntsman said Utah was different. How can this be!?

Utah needs a correction, just like everyone else. We started this mess with below national average priced homes. I imagine we will end up there as well.

This entire foreclosure mess in Utah is the fault of the LDS chruch. If Brigham Young hadn't settled this valley, most people wouldn't live here and we wouldn't have all these forclosures.

When you don't listen to your leaders, and buy what the Jones have on a $240,000 income on your $60,000 income with 2 full time jobs and a part time job, and the wife doing full time day care in the home, Ends just don't meet when the ARM goes UP, or the Interest Only Payment Ends! Banks are going to lose big time, and a lot of nice homes are going to be sold for pennies on the dollar to more people who can't afford to heat, cool, and maintain these homes. It's all well and good, but in 25 years there is just a lot of newer Condemned Un-kept houses falling apart with under-income families living in them bringing the value of a neighborhood DOWN!

It is truly sad that Utahns are so aloof that they need church leaders to tell them that if they make 50K/year, they probably shouldn't buy a 300K house.


Geniuses.

How many of these are illegals that came to work housing construction and are out of work?

Commercial construction is still happening, but residential is a problem.

I put no stock in any Harvard educated person. For years now people have been claiming how dumb Merril Cook, and George Bush are and they both have graduate degrees from Harvard. How could a good school even grant degrees to such people, no less advanced degrees.

And to those claimm the mormons giving 10% of there income to tithing is causing the problem you should go to Harvard as well, because the claim has no basis in fact, and makes you look the fool to any reasonable person. All religons tith at 10%!

And for someone who actually lives in Phoenix and owns homes in Utah, You people in Utah have not seen anything even close to what has happened in the Arizona real estate markets.

Well, sometimes in life we have bumbs, and sometimes we don't, but you can't change the pass----"Just fix it." Hey, Utah, don't be to hard on those up the creek without the paddle, you don't know why they are up a creek????? Shame on those who JUDGE!

Then throw all the counsel and "our" higher standards out the window because of everyone else. THe LDS today are weak and conformists. In utah there is a big problem with LDS people living totally out of their means and trying to make the fast dollar. I thought the LDS community was supposed to be a peculair people?

It's no secret that many LDS call themselves conservative.

It's a well-known fact that conservatives have a thing for money and power. They worship them both.
God/Money, Money/God. To conservatives the two are unseparable.
I'm not suprised that Utah ranks so high on foreclosures. Keeping up with the Jones' is paramount with conservatives.

Oh, well. You reap what you sow.

Skewed numbers?

Just looking at the 17,000% increase shows some faults in this report.

All I know is prices in my neighborhood have only dropped slightly. One house out of the 60 in our neighborhood is in foreclosure. The price on it still isn't dropping.