Foreclosures In Southwest Florida: It's A Community Problem
It seems that you cannot go anywhere today without hearing someone speaking about what is going on with the foreclosures in Southwest Florida. It's in the newspapers and on the minds of many people living in Southwest Florida. Most people in Southwest Florida will fall into one of three categories: First, there are the rich that will never have to worry about the foreclosure crisis, so we will leave them out of this. We will talk about them later when the stock market takes a dive, and then we can say, we told you so, but you were too busy attending wine auctions that you missed all of the economic indicators predicting a recession. Second, you have the middle class, which is our largest group. Many of these individuals are homeowners with mortgages on their primary residences, and they are feeling the pinch of the recession as their home values plummet. These are the people who have either lost their homes already, live in fear of losing their homes, or are renting somewhere else in an attempt to save their homes.
Third, we have everyone else. For the purposes of this blog, these are the individuals who were smart enough to sell their homes when the market was high, or are renting right now and taking advantage of the rental market. I am leaving out a substantial part of the population who are not being directly affected by the foreclosure market. However, even if your home is not in foreclosure, we are all directly impacted by the foreclosure market. For example, I spoke with a young woman the other day who came to see me for advice. She just turned thirty, has a good job, is financially sound , has investments, retirement plan, etc. He only problem was the dream home that she purchased two years ago. She is not in foreclosure, but she is about $80,000.00 upside down in negative equity. She received a magnificent job offer in another state that would increase her salary. Her dream home is now an anchor that is dragging her down.
What did she do wrong? Nothing. As a matter of fact, she did everything right. She put herself through school, worked hard, saved her money, purchased a beautiful home that she could afford, and now, when an opportunity presents itself, she is directly affected by a market condition that she has no part of. My point is that this market will impact each and every one of our lives, and we should stop pointing the fingers and placing blame. We need solutions that will keep people in their homes. We need more aggressive legislation, and we need the President to stop playing politics and allow the bankruptcy laws to be amended to help those homeowners who can afford to stay in their homes.
