Locally, Detroit looks likely to continue feeding the repo-machine. The ominous news from America’s giant property market data firm, CoreLogic Inc., is that 46.8% of homes and condominiums in the Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn area were in negative equity in the first quarter of the year. (In the US, there’s nothing stopping a homeowner in negative equity tossing the keys back to the bank and moving on.) The number of Detroit homes repossessed by banks in April almost doubled compared to the same month in 2009. CorelLogic takes a bearish view on American house prices, forecasting a 0.5% fall in the next 12 months. In Detroit, it’s forecasting a further 6.1% drop. Since investors don’t want to buy these properties, Detroit’s mayor Dave Bing has another plan. He’ll destroy them.
Our publisher writes about dire Detroit socioeconomics, in his guest column for Citywire.
Technorati Tags: property, real estate, recession
Name:
Email Address (this is an anti-spam measure and will not be shared or disclosed):
URL:
Comments:
