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Rather than helping working people to save their homes, banks foreclosed on more than 1 million properties last year, which will slow the economic recovery and obstruct job growth, especially in construction.
As NPR’s Jacob Goldstein reports:
…repossessed houses tend to sell at a discount, and this backlog is likely to keep housing prices down.
It’s also likely to mean that home construction crews will largely remain idle. Who would want to build new houses that will have to compete with all those foreclosures coming to market?
The number of foreclosures is likely to be even higher this year, according to the real estate data firm RealtyTrac. Five states—California, Florida, Arizona, Illinois and Michigan—accounted for more than half of all foreclosure activity. One in every 11 housing units in Nevada received at least one foreclosure filing in 2010, more than four times the national average.
Just five years ago, before the housing bust, banks repossessed about 100,000 homes, RealtyTrac says.
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