Spike in Foreclosures Goes Beyond Subprime

Some people -- the usual suspects -- have claimed that foreclosures are primarily a sub-prime phenomenon.

That might have been mostly true much earlier in the cycle of credit and housing problems. Sub-prime was the canary in the coal mine, with the financially weakest people most at risk of mortgage delinquency, default and foreclosure.

Today, however, foreclosures are moving up the socio-economic ladder:

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Foreclosures on Prime Mortgages



map courtesy of NYT

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Source:

The Trouble in Housing Trickles Up

NELSON D. SCHWARTZ

NYT, June 1, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/business/01town.html

Sunday, June 01, 2008 | 06:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

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The large brown block in central Maine is Penobscot County, which would be the Bangor metropolitan area (although most of it is very rural). The increase in foreclosure there is undoubtedly linked to the enormous jump in heating oil prices this past year. The local utility, Bangor Hydro, reported in April that 50 percent of its residential customers were delinquent in their electricity bills. This is because Maine law prohibits electricity shut-offs during the winter and customers were paying their heating oil bills and letting the electricity bill go unpaid until spring.

Posted by: Douglas Watts | Jun 1, 2008 8:15:39 AM