Huffing and Puffing the Foreclosure Wolf Knocks From Door To Door

Huffing and puffing the foreclosure wolf knocks from door to door blowing them all down. 118th Avenue in South Jamaica (Queens) does not look like a neighbourhood but like a street in Pompeii – only this time it was not the volcano but the foreclosure eruption that has reduced the sounds and noises of a bustling community to mere echoes.

All too common sights are overgrown garden, boarded shutters, holes in doors and signs of water supply being cut off. The neighbours have resigned themselves to their fate of living next to such ghostly reo homes. It is the same in 153rd Street. This area is the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis in New York. Nearly 28% of the houses close to Kennedy Airport have slipped into foreclosure since 2004.

Two years ago the locality was alive with children playing and hearth fires burning. Strident steps had been taken by the community to tackle problems related to drugs and violence. But today the fight has gone out of them has property values tumble. Crime has staged a dramatic come back as the thought uppermost on the minds of the locals is when will the foreclosure wolf come knocking at their door and blow it down. Everybody is talking of leaving.

Mega Deli Grocery shop has downed shutters because sales have dropped by a third. Two reo houses have been burgled this year reported the police. It is not the bank or the realtor that announces the first signs of foreclosure – it is the piling up of junk mail on the front door that tells the tale of foreclosure.

This pocket of South Jamaica is similar to that of many other places where foreclosures are concentrated. People with modest income who could not afford traditional mortgages were tempted by sub-prime loans to realize their dreams of owning a house. By opting for these they walked into a dangerous trap.

According to census reports during the past five years in southeast Queens there had been 226 foreclosures that meant every one of four families was affected. This is the highest in New York City according to Furman Center of Real Estate and Urban Policy of New York University. Of the houses that had been bought in 2005, 69% were financed by sub-prime loans. Vicki Been of Furman Center said, “What you see in that community is incredibly high rate of high-cost and sub-prime lending.”

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