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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Foreclosures in Military Towns Surge at Four Times U.S. Rate

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/new...p;sid=awj2TMDLnwsU&refer=home

Excerpt:

Foreclosure filings in 10 towns and cities within 10 miles of military facilities, including Norfolk, Virginia, home of the Navy's largest base, rose by an average 217 percent from January through April from a year earlier. Nationally, the rate was 59 percent in the same period, according to RealtyTrac, which tallies bank seizures, auctions and default notices.

The biggest surge was in Columbia, South Carolina, home to Fort Jackson, where the Army trains recruits for combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Properties in some stage of foreclosure rose 492 percent from a year earlier, RealtyTrac said. The second-biggest increase was 414 percent in Woodbridge, Virginia, next to the Marine Corps Base Quantico.

Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Uh, yes....so all those legislators whose votes are often based on the fact that military bases in their districts provide jobs, are about to learn that jobs that don't pay the mortgage aren't really jobs.

Will "support the troops" now turn into "support the homeless"?

Apropos of nothing, I've been thinking....if not for the U.S. being trillions of dollars in debt to China and Japan, would we have a million percent inflation here just like in Zimbabwe?

So far I haven't seem much practical progress on the ground. People lose their homes, banks foreclose, but the big developers haven't lost their power over local governments yet. They may own the real estate, but they can't build new stuff and can't sell or rent what they've already built. Will their grip eventually start to loosen?