Brooklyn Foreclosures Drop Dramatically in First Quarter
While foreclosures city-wide were down slightly in the first quarter versus a year ago, they were down significantly in Brooklyn. According to PropertyShark, there were only 37 foreclosures in Brooklyn over the last three months, versus 140 in the first quarter of 2008 and 83 in the fourth quarter of 2008; Manhattan also saw a…
While foreclosures city-wide were down slightly in the first quarter versus a year ago, they were down significantly in Brooklyn. According to PropertyShark, there were only 37 foreclosures in Brooklyn over the last three months, versus 140 in the first quarter of 2008 and 83 in the fourth quarter of 2008; Manhattan also saw a marked decline. You can check out a dynamic map of the Brooklyn properties here. If the same thing were happening in the Bronx and Queens, we might chalk it up to the government and bank programs, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. So any ideas what could explain this trend in Brooklyn?
A big portion of those newly unemployed stem from the fact that people who were laid of many months ago are just now filing for unemployment because their severance packages are ending.
You can’t file until severance payments stop.
NPR this morning was discussing the unemployment rate, job losses and the recession. The woman interviewed predicted a continued (though slowed) downward trend in the economy until Q4 this year. And because unemployment is a trailing reflection of the economy, she said we should expect lob losses through the end of Q1 of 2010… where the unemployment/job losses will reach its peak. (Perhaps 10-12%)
The “good news” was that the decline has *slowed* though not stopped.
No matter how you slice it, 8.5% unemployment ain’t too good. And since I have unemployed family members in wonderful industries like manufacturing… outsourcing to Mexico… it ain’t so cheery.
“One last thing– The retards on TV are calling this the Greater Recession now! Oh Boy…”
That would be a pretty strong confirmation that it is now over!!!!!! It’ll hit the cover of Newsweek next week and we’ll know we’re on the way out of it!!!!!
Folks we are in one big mess!!! I’m looking at unemployment as a leading indicator. So many people lost their jobs last month and this quarter. I think we better prepare for lies ahead.
U.S. Unemployment Rate Reaches 25-Year High of 8.5% (Update2)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aV3T3USSyJy0&refer=home
April 3 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. unemployment rate jumped in March to the highest level since 1983 as the economy lost 663,000 jobs, threatening to keep spending subdued for months and delay any recovery.
The jobless rate increased to 8.5 percent from 8.1 percent in February, a Labor Department report showed in Washington — consistent with the forecasts of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Employers have cut a total of about 5.1 million posts since the recession began, the biggest slump in the postwar era.
The unemployment rate was 4.6% just six month ago. We live in interesting times but it’s not the “interesting” you want.
One last thing– The retards on TV are calling this the Greater Recession now! Oh Boy…
The What
Someday this war is gonna end..
DIBS,
Agreed. What I don’t understand though is why only in Brooklyn the foreclosures are down. Special treatment by banks?
I’ve been told by a couple lawyers that this opinion was important:
http://www.foreclosuredefenselawblog.com/2008/06/new-york-court.html
“So any ideas what could explain this trend in Brooklyn?”
Very slow, cloggy foreclosure process. There’s been a lis pendens on my block for about one or two years now. It doesn’t show up on that map. Expedite the process like other states and foreclosures would skyrocket. Not a good way to measure the health of the NYC market. Not at all. It’s a nice straw to grasp though.
Short sales, like dave alluded to above, is another plausible explanation.
***Bid half off peak comps***
I mentioned this a few months ago and the What provided a link to the same story maybe 2 weeks ago or so but what has been happening is that banks are pulling back from foereclosing for two reasons. The primary reason is because then they have to come up with the additional taxes, etc, to the cities & towns. Many smaller towns see the banks as an ATM machine and levy huge fees on homes in foreclosure or unoccupied; so the banks just don’t foreclose.
Secondly, I believe the banks are trying to package all the bad loans together to sell off en masse which would be far easier than dealing with them themselves. Both of these scenarios would have driven down the rate of foreclosure.
I thought the banks had a grace period during the holidays where they were not going to foreclose on any home. Maybe that was a factor in this new data.