Comments about ‘Home foreclosures still hit Utah metro areas’

Utah's high foreclosure rates?. A single younger GOP made $$$$$$$ off of YOU. Utah would cringe is they heard about Jeff Greene , and wall street. U.S. Senate hopeful Kendrick Meek released his first campaign ad against Democratic rival Jeff Greene this week. It's a powerful ad in which Meek attacks Greene, a billionaire businessman. The ad claims that Greene ran for Congress as a Republican in California two years ago. This is true. Greene was, at one point, a registered Republican, and he did run for Congress in a Republican primary. Greene lost in the 1982 GOP primary in Los Angeles County and got 28 percent of the vote. Ten years later, Greene registered with no party affiliation. Greene registered as a Democrat when he moved to Florida in 2008, and campaign finance records showed he has been a generous Democratic supporter. Meek's ad claims that Greene helped fuel the economic meltdown and became a billionaire on Wall Street from betting middle-class families would lose their homes. Greene invested in what are called credit default swaps, or essentially insurance on other people's loans. In short, if a property fell into foreclosure, Greene made money.

SO SAD. More Utahns join the jobless ranks, more homeowners are also falling behind on their mortgage payments or slipping into foreclosure. Utah is stuck in a negative job loss rut, and it's dragging on longer than they hoped. Utah's unemployment rate continues to trend higher in June, with the growth in jobless claims showing no signs of abating as the recession deepens, according to a state economist. According to a state Department of Workforce Services report released Thursday, about 46,100 Utah jobs were lost over the past year, bringing the unemployment rate to 5.7 percent in June compared to 3.3 percent a year ago, and extending the job-loss trend that kicked into high gear after the stock market collapsed in October. Utah's job losses could hit as high as the 50,000 level around late fall or early winter before they start to stabilize, said Mark Knold, chief economist with Workforce Services. About 78,100 Utahns were considered unemployed in June, compared against 46,000 last year, an increase of 32,100. For the past six months, unemployment claims have been averaging between 3,000 and 3,500 per week.