Sep 4, 2008 8:39 pm US/Eastern
Foreclosure Numbers Likely To Rise In NYC
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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As CBS reported Wednesday night, the number of home foreclosures in New York reached a three-year high last month, up 13 percent from July to August. And the borough hardest hit? Queens. But numbers don't tell the whole story. (File)
AP
As CBS 2 reported Wednesday night, the number of home foreclosures in New York reached a three-year high last month, up 13 percent from July to August. And the borough hardest hit? Queens. But numbers don't tell the whole story.
Martha Espinoza bought her house in Jamaica in Jan. 2005 and she quickly found an assortment of problems.
"This is my bathroom, and you can see the illegal wiring," she showed CBS 2.
The cost of repairs caused her to fall behind in her mortgage payments. Then her loan rate adjusted upwards and she could no longer afford the payments. Now in foreclosure, the single mother of two blames dishonest realtors and mortgage brokers.
Experts say the culprits are all white collar educated criminals that know how to swindle the system.
But Espinoza isn't alone. As a graph on PropertyShark.com shows, the other boroughs stayed relatively constant, but foreclosures in Queens shot up like the Alps.
As marked by red pushpins on the graph, 254 homes were foreclosed there last month, an astounding 113 percent increase over the last year. Add in the number of homeowners starting the process of foreclosure, as marked by purple pushpins, and one can see where the trend is heading.
Manhattan, by contrast, saw few foreclosures last month, but again, shown by the purple markers, there are more on the horizon.
Experts say home prices are destined to fall, even in Manhattan, until they reach a level where investors will rush in.
But Espinoza's American dream is over.
"You know, I wanted everything that any other parent, or any other American, wants for their children," she says.
Los Angeles and Miami actually saw diminished numbers of foreclosures. Experts say that's because the prices in those markets have fallen far enough for buyers to bite. In some cases, houses are selling for half of their former purchase price.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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