Apr 2, 2008 6:38 pm US/Eastern
Foreclosure Numbers Rising Rapidly In NYC
Queens, Staten Island Hit The Hardest So Far
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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More and more people are losing their homes to foreclosure, including 918 New Yorkers so far in 2008.
AP
The flood of foreclosures in the city has reached a new high the first few months of the year, with the outer boroughs seeing the largest increases. In all, more than 900 homes in New York City have gone into foreclosure.
In a small Brooklyn loft, researchers for the Web site PropertyShark.com track real estate trends, including foreclosures.
And business is booming.
Ashleigh Rose Clark, one of the site's employees, says New York is getting hammered.
"Staten Island is up 411 percent from last year, which is quite a dramatic increase. Queens is currently up about 90 percent from last quarter, which has been a very big increase for Queens in the past year," she says.
A map of Queens on PropertyShark shows the ugly truth. The part of the borough hit hardest: South Jamaica. The neighborhood has 53 homes in foreclosure.
With a click of a mouse, red dots show the number of houses in foreclosure, while purple dots indicate the number of homeowners in the first stage of foreclosure.
Page after page of the site lists house after house being seized by the banks.
In the first quarter of 2008, there were 918 foreclosure auctions in New York City
"Since January, I've received a tremendous number of phone calls from borrowers having difficulty making mortgage payments," says David Pankin, a bankruptcy attorney who represents homeowners in foreclosures.
"It's really hurtful to the client to come and see me. They look at their home as the one thing they always wanted in their life, and then they're struggling to keep their home," he says.
Congress is planning legislation to help families avoid foreclosure, including a $7,000 tax credit. Still, some economists say any relief that brings won't happen this year, or anytime soon as "for sale" signs continue to sprout like spring flowers.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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