According to Michael Barone at U. S. News & World Report, the statistics on foreclosure rates from December 2007 to January 2009 are very revealing. Only nine states have foreclosure rates above the national average, and only four states have extremely high foreclosure rates--number of foreclosures per 5,000 housing units--Nevada, 66, California, 29, Arizona, 27, and Florida 23.
According to the article:
"Just over half of national foreclosures were in the four Sand States. Another one-fifth were in the mixed bag of fast-growth/industrial-distress/high-Hispanic states which approximate the national average. The other 38 states, with 60 percent of the nations population, have only 25 percent of the nation's foreclosures."
It seems to me that all the fuss made over foreclosure is a little disingenuous. Why do sixty percent of the nations population have to shoulder the burden of the 40 percent who were involved in speculation or bought houses they simply couldn't afford? The recession was caused to some extent by greed--but it was also caused by government pressure placed on banks to make loans that were risky. We need to let the market stabilize itself, and pouring more money into the mortgage market and renegotiating mortgages will not do that.
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