The Real Foreclosure Story

A lot of people are nervous about what they are reading in the newspaper and hearing on TV. But how can you blame them?

The media is bombarding people with reports about the housing decline and the sub-prime mortgage mess.

However, Chief ECONOMIST for the National Mortgage Bankers Association, Doug Duncan decided last week to set the record straight. In a private conversation, Doug said that people have nothing to worry about in Texas.


Some of his defenses were...

• The foreclosure problem in this country is really a story about 7 states
• The biggest foreclosure problem is in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana. These are predominantly manufacturing states
• Since 2001, Michigan has lost 300,000+ jobs
• The other 4 states are California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada. In each of these states there has been significant overbuilding. 25% of the foreclosures in these states are on properties that are held by investors who were speculating
• California & Florida have been hit very hard
• 35% of the homes in the USA do not have a mortgage
• 98% of the mortgages in the USA are performing
• Only 9% of all mortgages are sub-prime
• 75% of all sub-prime mortgages are performing
• In the other 43 states, foreclosures have fallen in 2007 from 2006

Right now, our local inventory levels are half the national average and well-priced homes are selling fast.

You cannot expect this type of factual information to be distributed by the news media channels. We have to be telling folks this story.