Nov 4, 2009 6:20 pm US/Central
Foreclosures Moving From Inner City To Suburbs
GLENVIEW, Ill. (CBS) ―
Nationwide, more than 200,000 workers lost their jobs last month. That sounds like bad news, but actually it's the smallest number in a year.
Layoffs may be slowing down, but home foreclosures are not. Instead, they're moving: from the inner city to middle-class neighborhoods and suburbs. You can erase that stereotype of foreclosures only plaguing low-income city areas.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley found the unemployment crisis has shifted the foreclosure crisis to the suburbs.
Joseph Foy is tired of hearing prospective employers tell him the same thing.
"I've been told many times, 'we'll call you.' I'm so fed up with that answer, 'we'll call you later,'" said Foy.
It's been 18 months now since Foy lost his job as a plumbing and heating technician. His unemployment benefits just ran out. His wife, a dental technician, can only find part-time work. And his five-bedroom Glenview home is hanging in the balance, on the brink of foreclosure.
The first foreclosure wave was focused in the inner city with low-income residents stuck in predatory loans.
"We're talking about brokers who mistakenly led homeowners to believe, you can refinance in six months. You can refinance in a year. And when that time came, you couldn't refinance. And you had to deal with this readjusted rate," said Jasmine Brewer, director of housing counseling at the Interfaith Housing Center of the North Suburbs.
However, figures from Chicago's Woodstock Institute show the second wave is striking the suburbs.
Compared to last year, third-quarter foreclosure filings are soaring. In Lake County, 1,692 homes went into foreclosure, up 83 percent. In DuPage County, 1,831 homes were affected, up 67 percent. In Will County,
1,780 homes were hit, up 54 percent.
Experts say the foreclosures are skyrocketing as homeowners are thrown out of work.
"It could continue as long as our financial crisis continues, until the economic recovery really takes hold," said Dori Rand, president of the Woodstock Institute.
In other words, until employers start hiring again.
Joseph Foy is working with the Interfaith Housing Center and his lenders to modify his loan and lower his payments. But even that won't help without a job.
"I have to be employed by the time this modification comes along. In other words, I have to have an income," said Foy.
Foy told CBS 2 he may have a line on a job that will get him back to work. He's keeping his fingers crossed.
However, the unemployment rate isn't expected to head lower until next year at the earliest. National jobless figures come out Friday, and some experts fear the rate could hit 10 percent.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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