Facts matter: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter. Support our nonprofit reporting. Subscribe to our print magazine.
MORE MORTGAGE WOES….Unemployment rose in November by the highest amount since the first Arab oil embargo, and that’s making the housing situation even worse:
A record one in 10 American homeowners with a mortgage were either at least a month behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of September…up from 9.2 percent in the April-June quarter, and up from 7.3 percent a year earlier.
Distress in the home loan market started about two years ago as increasing numbers of adjustable-rate loans reset to higher interest rates. But the latest wave of delinquencies is coming from the surge in unemployment.
This is why allowing Detroit to collapse would be such bad news. But we still need a decent plan to turn them into going concerns.
