RI foreclosure crisis widening, worsening
4:47 PM Wed, Nov 25, 2009 | Permalink
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The rate of home foreclosures climbed in the third quarter of 2009, both nationally and in Rhode Island, as experts say the mortgage crisis is now striking people who had good credit histories, but can no longer pay their bills because they have lost their jobs. "This started as a real estate mortgage crisis, and now we're getting into the effects of unemployment recession," said Richard H. Godfrey, executive director of Rhode Island Housing, the state agency that deals with mortgages and housing issues. Numbers recently made public by several entities that track mortgages and foreclosures show that Rhode Island is in worse shape than neighboring Massachusetts and that things are getting worse. In the first nine months of the year, 5.3 mortgages on single-family houses were foreclosed for every 1,000 such houses in Rhode Island, according to the Warren Group, a Boston real estate consulting firm. In Massachusetts, the rate was less than half that, at 2.4. Looked at a different way, the middle-class Rhode Island suburb of Warwick has a rate -- 8.4 -- that is higher than a slew of aging Massachusetts factory communities, such as Worcester, 6.4; Fitchburg, 5.9; Lowell, 5.83; Springfield, 5.7, and Fall River, 5.3. "It doesn't surprise me that we're higher than Massachusetts," Godfrey said. "Our job situation is worse than Massachusetts." Godfrey also said that the number of suburban communities -- including Warwick, Johnston and Coventry -- in the top-10 foreclosure rates in Rhode Island further underscores the changing nature of the problem with foreclosures. "We're seeing them dropping in the urban core and increasing each month outside the urban core," he said. "The unemployment is hitting all across the state in lots of different kinds of jobs. Unemployment is not just hitting in the urban areas." The Mortgage Bankers Association, which compiles the most comprehensive statistics on mortgage loan performance nationwide, also had grim numbers for Rhode Island in the third quarter of the year, the months of July, August and September. The association, which bases its statistic on a nationwide survey of 44 million mortgages serviced by banks, credit union, mortgage companies and other institutions, reported that 10.25 percent of Rhode Island's mortgages are 30 days or more past due. That's the record high since the association began keeping records in 1972, according to spokeswoman Carolyn Kemp. That delinquency rate climbed from 8.93 percent in the second quarter of this year and from 7.30 percent in the third quarter of last year. The association also tracks foreclosure rates. At the end of the third quarter of this year, 4.05 percent of all mortgages in Rhode Island were somewhere in the foreclosure process. That jumped from 3.18 percent in the same quarter last year, but was essentially unchanged from the second quarter this year, when the rate was 4.08 percent, according to the association. "Job losses continue to increase and drive up delinquencies and foreclosures because mortgages are paid with paychecks, not percentage-point increase in GDP," Jay Brinkmann, the association's chief economist, said in a statement. "The outlook is that delinquency rates and foreclosure rates will continue to worsen before they improve." 
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Foreclosures are dropping in Providence due to the City Ordinance requiring Lenders and Servicers to negotiate restructuring and modifying mortgages to keep people in their homes. We should applaud the Mayor and the Providence City Council for their rational and logical thinking in this crisis.
If this type of measure is not adopted statewide, the rates of foreclosures will surpass homeownership; leaving a surplus of unoccupied houses that are in disrepair and have depreciated in value, further decreasing property tax revenue.
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how do i get more info on this ordinance?
and info on: if there taking it to a state level
i do not live in providence,
i would like to know what i can do to protect myself,, while iam waiting on a modification
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We need to start allowing judges to start providing personal bankruptcy protection for primary residences instead of just vacation homes and investment properties or the social consequences could last for generations.
Some people seem to think that would be unfair but ask yourself why do the laws afford more protection for the less vulnerable?
We should all be ashamed and embarrassed of the way this country has been treating it's own members.
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one of the main reasons so many people are losing their homes its because of the extreme high property taxes, useless and draconian fire codes and useless lead laws and until the general assembly rolls these redicoulous laws back and find a different way to fund education instead of on the backs of the property owners this state will never change and you will see more and more people lose their homes.
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If the tenants in Providence paid their rents, the landlords would not be faced with this foreclosure in many cases. This state is so liberal and blind that tenants basically can live in a house for months on end, destroying them, and not paying rent and there is nothing the mortgage paying landlord can do about it. Have a faster eviction process, hold individuals criminally liable for the destruction they cause and perhaps the rental industry would be more appealing in RI. As a landlord I am thankful for my tenants, and shake my head at some of those who continue to get stepped on and taken advantage of. The rental market in RI my go farther down the tubes as these liberal laws get taken advantage more and more.
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Rhode Island is facing the same situation of other places. Foreclosures are hitting hard in this period and something must be done to avoid worse numbers next month
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