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Utah foreclosures up 141%
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We should bring Barry into office six months earlier so he can share his love with each of us with tax increases and more government oversight and bailouts!
As if these lending institutions like Zions and Bank of America and Countrywide wanted to see their stock prices slashed. I personally just love seeing my stocks lose 30% of their value... but I don't blame SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS .. I blame these moronic lenders who stopped requiring 20% down and income documentation. It's just greed and why would anyone take out a loan when they are going to be financially strapped to make the payments?
I know one thing - they're not making anymore land and at some point prices will start going up again but I don't really care.. I bought my house so I would have a roof over my head ... not to make easy money
Mr. Lee, where is your desk relative to Ms. Bulkeley's in the DN's newsroom? Give her a heads up about what you've found in re the whole debt-ridden suburbs thing.
For all of those doom and gloom folks - please ignore this but this market WILL INCREASE!!! Just wait until the lag time catches up with all the inflation on gas prices. Seriously, if you think you're home is going down 10% - you're crazy.
Inflation, inflation, inflation. It's happening everywhere! When the population starts increasing again, jobs start popping up again, homes will ABSOLUTELY follow. And when they try and build homes, the materials that they need will be too expensive to keep prices down.
Besides, like somebody once said: THEY AREN'T MAKING ANYMORE LAND.
That is just lie made up by liberals.
Everything is just fine and dandy.
How in many peoples wildest imaginations did they think they could afford houses that expensive? Yes, the lenders are part of the blame, but financially uneducated buyers is probably the bigger problem. When I went thru HS in UT finance was not required. There was one elective personal finance course offered.
Maybe we don't need financial education, we can just rely on a feeling to let us know if we are making wise financial choices... and we wonder why there are so many cases of financial fraud and bankruptcies in Utah.
If Utah foreclosures are well below the national norm (1 in 600 homes in foreclosure in Utah vs. 1 in 500 nationally) then how is the state 10th in terms of rate of forclosure. Several statistical outliers would need to be in place on the top end of the scale for this to be fact which is highly unlikely in this realm.
One of the two stated statistics is likely erroneous. Sitting well below the national average in foreclosures likely ranks the state in the 30's in terms of rate of foreclosure.
For years Utah has been at the top or near the top of bankruptcies and now, foreclosures.
Use of anti depressants is high in this state as well.
How could this be in a state like ours??
Possible explanations:
1) Low wages
2) High charitable giving
3) Large families
4) High expectations with regards to lifestyle, conduct, etc.
Possible remedies:
1) Move out of state if you want higher wages--eventually employers will have to become competitive
2) Pay on net or "increase/surplus" instead of gross (after vital expenses)--just a thought, if can be done
3) 2-4 kids is still "multiplying and replenishing" the earth, we don't live on the frontier anymore
4)Don't compare yourself to others, be happy with simple things
Well, that was politically incorrect I'm sure but I think it would help.
The new rules that require buyers to qualify at the highest rate the note could go to and to fully document income will be a welcome relief in the housing market. This idea that everyone should buys a house is one of the myths that led to this total collapse of the housing market.
Delusional homeowners in Utah (and there are MANY)who want to sell their homes essentially have two options. They can drastically reduce their asking price (by at least 20%)or enjoy foreclosure.
A 10K reduction on your 400K home is not a reduction. I do appreciate the laugh though.
Those who don't have to sell and choose to take their home off the market will only get less and less over the next couple of years.
This is actually good news for the local housing market as affordability and sustainability are slowly being restored. This is only the beginning.
the religious entitlement attitude in this state is overwhelming ... those that have and can pay should pay for those who dont have and cant afford it ..
this state needs an attitude adjustment in the entitlement area ... do it the old fashion way EARN it first ... dont expect someone else to pay for your lifestyle
the story was nothing more then telling us all , you get what you earn and pay for
In reality, in took place slowly and insidiously for almost two decades.
The smart person recognizes we are in that cycle once again and transforms his entire thinking about
the economy, capitalism, and his out-of-control spending habits.
I'm open to any explanation how this is the fault of "trickle down economics." It's not enough just to toss out the buzzwords, kids -- in the big leagues, you need to bring some analysis.
Personally the government should not bail anyone out, If you can read english, you should be accountable for signing on the dotted line, even Dave Fox, who cut a deal and turned on his buisness partners all in the name of saving face... Really Pathetic, just another wolf in sheeps clothing....
Are these people abusing our free enterprise system?
You cvan make them say what you want without lying.
Heck, if you had 10 foreclosures... and then it went to 20, you could say that foreclosures went up 100%.
But in reality only 10 more cases were found.
Let's put some REAL numbers to these stories.
Unless it is happening to you, and if it is because you lied to get into the house, too bad, but if you were too dumb to read the contract or you were swindled by the realator then I'm sorry... But if you got into this becauase you were greedy... too bad!
I've lost money with some bad decisitions in the stock market. Should the FEDS bail me out?
Same difference expect the bail out is not for the little guy, it is for the big ones that are paying the lobbiests.
This is a poorly written article. It gives three or four paragraphs of gloom, doom, and panic-inciting rhetoric. Those paragraphs show statistics and point out that our rate of increase is higher than the national average. Finally about four or five paragraphs in, he shows statistics that we are still below the national average in foreclosure rates, but does not specifically say so. To put it another way, if you went from one bad to two bad, your bad rate increased by 100%; if you went from 4 bad to 5 bad, your bad rate only increased by 20%. Which would you rather have, a bad rate that increased 100% to 2, or only went up 20% to 5? Such panic-inducing articles just exacerbate the problem.
Is it unfortunate that people are losing their homes? For the most part, yes, but I have no sympathy for those who refinanced, stripping equity out of their homes so they could blow it on cruises or big screens and SUVs. I also have no sympathy for speculators who pushed prices above reasonable levels.
Did you seriously take out a 40 year mortgage for a $160,000 home? That's pretty stupid if you ask me.
You'll probably be dead before you realize and pay all the interest on the loan and actually own the home!
Must be a BYU grad with a Spanish degree. :-)
There is only one group of people that can be blamed for this current situation. And that is the American consumer. At no time did Pres. Bush come out to Utah and force any homeowner to sign a promisory note for a home they could not afford. And, although lenders started bad practices, they also never forced a borrower into a mortage that was beyond their means.
Consumer advocates have been warning the American people about variable interest loans for years. Did we listen? NO! We have all been told to keep our mortage down to 25% of our income. Do we all do that? NO!
Nope, can't blame anyone but those who chose to live beyond their means. Even Greenspan saw this one coming.
The figures used in this report are somewhat meaningless since they are ratios or percent. So, that could mean if there were 100 homes foreclosed in 2007 that there would be 241% this year (141%) or if there were 1,000 that would mean 2,410 this past year. A percent gives us no idea of the total numbers. Percent is often used to reinforce someone's agenda.
It's called Investor GREED! In 2006 I was at a builders conference and one of the state economic advisor's put up a graphic regarding Utah county and Salt Lake county. For every 6 real estate transaction in Salt Lake, 1 was a new construction. In Utah county it was 1 in every 3!!
Now try and sell me the bill of goods that there was that much demand for new home buyers in Utah county...BULL PUCKY!! It was a group of companies and investors who were attempting to make big bucks on flipping new constructions. Blame the developers, the builders, and the Dave Foxes. Sure the banks and mortgage lenders bare some responsibility, but GREED is the number one reason your seeing the higher foreclosure rates in Utah county. Same thing happened in Saint George, but not Salt Lake County.
The biggest issue is incomes, until incomes can justify 400k homes, your not going to see many of these loans approved. So the earlier real estate agent that suggested that the market is actually pretty good for sellers who are moving a house under 300k is actually spot on! For those selling above $400k, pray, and be flexible..and 10k adjustment in price is not a real reduction, try 40k if your selling a 400k home.
It also doesn't help things when a culture promotes the twisted and disgusting idea that wealth (or feigned wealth) means "God has been blessing them."
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The real housing bailout will take place when you folks get realistic about your asking prices and bring them back down around 2004-2005 levels. When that happens, those of us with the money will go ahead and buy your overpriced homes. Until then, we're content to rent and sleep well at night.
Oh this whole credit crisis is a lot more fun to watch when you don't own a depreciating home. Every week housing inventory increases in Salt Lake City and yet the stubborn seller refuses to realize that he's asking too much for his house. Wake up! Utah is not immune to the credit crisis. We are lagging the national trend by 18-24 months. Your home's value will fall at least 30% from it's peak.