LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28 (Chinese media) -- Exacerbated by rising unemployment, the number of homes lost last year in California was up 180 percent from 2007, it was reported on Wednesday.
More than 236,000 homes were lost to foreclosure in California last year, topping the previous nine years combined, according to data published by the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday
Meanwhile, the number of borrowers who defaulted on their payments hit a record high of more than 404,000, the data showed.
Rising unemployment, which stands at 9.3 percent in California, was blamed for the wave of foreclosures, according to the data from IndyMac Federal Bank, a big mortgage lender.
"The people who are defaulting now are not really people who recklessly got into loans they never could have afforded," said Evan Wagner, the communications director for IndyMac Federal Bank. "These are people who have lost their jobs or who have had their hours cut back at work."
Wagner said that up to 80 percent of the borrowers seeking an easing of their loan terms are doing so because of the loss of a job or income.
California was last hit by massive foreclosures in the early 1990s, when the state was also struggling with an economic downturn and rising unemployment, according The Times.
At that time, there were about 10 foreclosures for every 100 layoffs, the paper quoting real estate analysts as saying.
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