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Utah foreclosures up 136%

What does anyone expect when prices far outstrip most Americans' abilities to pay for houses? Prices got out of control as everyone looked at homes as short term investments and get rich quick schemes. Prices rose by astronomical proportions while incomes stayed pretty flat. This disaster has been a few years in the making.

Haven't we all driven around a neighborhood being built and said to ourselves "What do these people do for a living?" The answer is they are all doing just what we do, they just did it with exotic mortgages and credit cards. Not many could afford home prices...period. Now we are paying for a market that outstripped consumers' abilities to pay.

Exotic mortgages and credit that was given away gave so many the illusion they could "afford" something when they really couldn't. How many times has a bank told you that you could "qualify for more" even when you knew you couldn't afford more. Housing prices should adjust back to a place where people can afford to live again.

I don't want to sound like I'm being unsympathetic, but I wonder how many of these foreclosure homes are $400,000 or above, and the people were simply greedy and keeping up with the Jones?

There is a great deal of that in Utah (it is becoming like California), and I honestly don't feel sorry for them. I am living in a home that I can actally afford and don't have two brand new SUV's and a boat, and my kids and wife don't go on shopping sprees or have a personal trainer. Not saying that everyone in foreclosure is, but it serves them right if they live a silly lifestyle they can't afford and then go into foreclosure as a result. What will really get members of the LDS Church angry is if these same people go to their Bishop to get help. That is unfair and selfish. I've seen it happen a few times, and can only imagine what the future will hold.

Just keep voting Republican Utah, it seems you never learn.

I love statistics! If I pay my mortgage payment on the 32nd day after it's due (yes it's late) it's considered a "foreclosure" notice just as if I haven't paid for months and it's for sale at the courthouse. By the way, how many "metro areas" are we competing against and coming in 43rd? I'd bet it's less than 50. In Tooele County, we have roughly the same number of bank owned properties we had in '03-04. It's what is needed. Yeah, it'll hurt values for a while, but they'll be back, as lenders come up with more creative ways for us to express our basic greed!

People living beyond their means cause most of the housing/mortgage problem in Utah and in the country as well!!!

I too have been told by 2 mortgage companies....
You want $$$ but we would like to extend to you $$$$$$$$ because you qualify for that much!! I had to repeatedly tell them NO!!!

I can hear President Hinckley.....

I am suggesting the time has come to put your houses in order, there is a portent of stormy weather on the horizon..... 1998 Conference

Who was listening???????? It was said to the men in the church...at the priesthood session

A friend who moved to Utah in about 1999 after seeing the homes in the valley... asked just that question... what do you people do for a living.... Then she realized there was no living to pay for what she was seeing.. it was all mortgaged to the hilt!!!

I am so so so glad I heard President Hinckley and didn't follow the trend....

Thanks to Prophets, seers, and revelators for the warning 10 years ago I heard!!!

What does voting Republican have to do with people buying homes they can't afford, immediately loading them up with new furniture, landscaping, tv's, etc (all on credit)?

Leave it to a democrat to not take responsibilty for there their own actions and blame all their problems on republicans.

Liberal Larry, I work with a former LDS bishop who said he would not support people's mortgages. It's real dangerous for me to speculate; I've never been a bishop and do not speak for the church, but -

I think it's up to each bishop and he will have to decide on a case-by-case basis, but I would hope that generally if he sees the situation as a long term problem, the best solution might be foreclosure; if it's short-term, maybe a month or two of mortgage support might be OK. I have known of someone close to losing their home and their bishop helped them find a rental property they could afford. One thing about the church's welfare program - it's designed to help support life, not a lifestyle. Does that mean there won't be any mistakes made? no, but I think most do the best they can.

Mike, our local economy is not as bad as that in CA (Dems control the legislature, more powerful than the governor, RINO Arnold) or MA, which has dems controlling the governor's mansion and the legislature. Both CA and MA were talking of asking the US Treasury for a bail-out.

You're delusional. Home values will not be back to where they were. You have witnessed an artificial market from 2005-2007, driven by the exotic mortgages and the resulting speculation stated in this article. Prices will continue to drop through 2009. The simple fact is this: Homes appreciated by 75% during this time, but salaries sure didn't. You will see things drop even more. Home prices are always a bit sticky coming down, and people are still making bad decisions just like they always have, such as paying 300K these days for a home that in a year will be worth 220K. Don't buy a home today if you can wait...this market will continue to deflate.

LOL, yes, vote for Obama and we get Socialism. Democrats want to give away everything for free, no need to work for it. I cant say McCain is any better though. Is there an option c) none of the above?

Yes, Utah, please do continue to vote Republican. Utah is one of the best managed states in the nation. Compare it to other states controlled primarily by democrats and you will soon find out that our Republican state government is doing an excellent job.

Still think we're not headed for a depression? The main thing proping up the failed US dollar right now is how poorly the rest of the world's markets are performing. And now Zion's bank is seeking bailout help. Yeah...if you haven't yet created an emergency fund and a food storage, I seriously recommend you do so. Or, you can continue to live in "Happy Land" where money doesn't matter, the FEDs can keep printing money out of thin air, and this economic crisis is just a "small bump in the road." (:

Put the dreamers and fantasy thinkers in the street. It's time for all to live a life of reality. Get up in the morning and before you paint yourself up take a good look at yourself in the mirror-thats reality. Same goes for lifestyles, you are what you are. Quit trying to impress yourself and others with debt you can't afford. If you must-suffer the consequences. I do not feel sorry for these spoiled pampared brats. Financial businesses are definetly wrong in all of this but, the real blame lays at the feet of the borrowers who know they are living in a fantasy world. No compassion here for any of them.

About your Utah is becoming more like CA comment. I'm from the Oakland area, born and raised, and recently moved to Utah (not permanently). I have seen far more amount of materialism and "Keeping up with the Jones'" here in Utah then I ever did in the Bay Area. This is not to say that it doesn't exist, and to a high degree, in the Bay Area. However in Utah it's much more blatant and, frankly, desperate. Those here in Utah who behave this way seem to be scrabbling and scatching to prove something to someone somewhere so desperately that it comes across as wanton and empty. It's disappointing and a touch disturbing.

All the bad information that I hear about who has caused the mortgage problems makes me wish that somewhere, someone would have the smarts and the access to information to actually provide the truth.
Hopefully the truth would give us the information we need to correct and prevent these kind of problems.

I love hearing the commercials on the radio "utah economy is great! keep buying! support your business's!"

with what money if the economy , NOT unlike the rest of the US, is going down.

keep voting republican ? As opposed to New York -- New Jersey ? Illinois ? Mass. ? Michigan ? California rolls democratic from head to toe (ARnold is a democrat too -- just like Mccain is )and is virtually bankrupt ?

think before you speak.

All I can say is you are a cruel lot. Yes, mistakes were made, people outspent and they (along w/ the rest of us) are paying for it. Yes, I even know people are upset that they are paying for everyone else's mistakes.
All that being said, I hope all of you are perfect in every way becuase you sure sound like you think you are. For those of you who actually think you are religous, you sure aren't acting like it. The God I beleive in sure wouldn't appreciate your attitudes towards those who are in a bad position now.

The thing that I most bothered by, is realtors who helped drive the prices out of whack and made tons of money knowing their buyers did not have what it takes to pay for these overpriced homes but still pushed them to their buddy mortgage guy who could get them in. Now there are forclosures and short sales and the same realtors are going to cash in on this market as well! What is wrong with this picture? Their slogan at all times is "Now is a great time to buy" I point blame equally on Banks creating fake loans, mortgage brokers pushing them,realtors pushing the buyers to new big homes, builders jacking up prices and borrowers falling for the whole thing.

@Ultra Bob,

Just read the Wall St. Journal. I saw the sell-off in debt coming years away. There were many varieties of viewpoints, of course, even up to August 2007. Economics is not deterministic. Nevertheless, I divested in real estate in 2005 when I saw what was happening in other parts of the country.

I've been dumbfounded by the ignorance in Utah. The Utah housing market has lagged the U.S., up and down, in slow motion. Yet people were still buying into it as the rest of the country started to crash.

They were still buying into the notion that "real estate is local," oblivious to the global credit markets and the securitization of mortgages that was driving the whole mess.

Heck, I know a couple of numbnuts who are closing on a house this month, thinking they can flip it in 2 years. It's still going on!

It was President Clinton (democrat) who approved the every two year tax exempt rule that gave greedy people the opportunity to go hog wild and use real estate as a get rich quick scheme. Then several appraisers lost their license because they over appraised homes. Then the mortgages used "stated income" when qualifying people. STILL the people acted upon the king pin of what Clinton approved.

It is also Nancy Paloci (democrat) who wants to sink another $300 billion, in addition to the $700 billion, into the market. By the way the whole Emergency Economic Stabilization Act is to buy mortgage-backed securities.

Once the banks get their bandaid they will start to foreclose homes.... Hmmm... Seems to be happening.

THANKS BILL CLINTON.