Foreclosures Overwhelm Rural Communities

[Robb]

Foreclosures Overwhelm Rural Communities

In Dakota County, Minnesota, where there never used to be any foreclosures, the backlog of vacant, unwanted foreclosed houses sets a new record every month, overwhelming the resources of local government to address the health and safety problems they pose. Though August, the county held September 1,349 sheriff's sales. In 2008 the total was 2,063.

Like most of America, rural areas like Dakota County, southwest of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are suffering the blight of foreclosed properties. Unlike suburban or urban markets, however, few foreclosures in Dakota County were caused by risky loans. They result from unemployment and the local economic picture, which is strangling local governments and their ability to maintain the vacant housing stock left behind by laid off workers.

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Just a little sorbet to cut through the taste of the "everyone losing their home is a speculator getting just desserts" meme.

[laughingliberal]

1. Thanks, I am really sick of that message

My husband and I bought a house in 2005. Not a subprime loan, a fixed 30 year and we had a FICO score of 811 at the time. We could afford it. Then, in 2007, his business (which he has operated since 1982) began to tank due to the downturn in the housing market. At the end of the year I lost my job. Now we hang on the verge of foreclosure. I'm sick of the message that the foreclosure crisis is all because of people who bought home they couldn't afford.

[My Good Babushka]

2. Recommended

We did not buy "more house than we can afford". We have a fixed rate on a modest home- about to foreclose in a month and a half, and we've always lived with extreme frugality.

[Robb]

3. kick nt