By Bob Hennelly | July 30, 2017
Listening to Wall Street based business reporting you would believe that the nation’s foreclosure crisis is in the nation’s rear view mirror. Yet, in New Jersey in places like Newark, East Orange, Paterson and Atlantic City foreclosures are hollowing out entire primarily African-American neighborhoods. Go to any on line real estate tracking site like Zillow and you can see the carnage depicted graphically. Atlantic City has the highest foreclosure rate in the country.
On the ground in these places it has meant vacant zombie homes, where families were pressured out, and banks have failed to re-market these distressed properties, and they continue to depress local property values. Sometimes the derelict properties catch fire and threaten the lives of those left behind. For those remaining families in these places, that are desperately trying to hold on to their homes, this downward spiral makes holding on even harder, as they find their mortgages sinking deeper and deeper underwater.
But that is not the only economic force drowning these folks, as they tried to hold on to their piece of the American dream that often has been in their family for a couple of generations. The local governments have tried to make up for the slide of their ratable base by raising property taxes. In some cases like Atlantic City by double digits as in 2014 when that City’s property levy spiked by 29 percent in one year.
The taxes go up because the residents of these shit holes elect mayors based upon their ethnicity , not competence.
Despite milking the state with abbot schools, a community grants etc they still don’t get it right.
Clinton change the rules to force banks to lend to people who would never qualify for a loan…hence the reason we had the financial meltdown. He wanted voters… And we all pay for it
So how many houses are on the market in the village Ridgewood no no I’m gonna make
@7.18am: You are absolutely right, but unfortunately, the MSM and the entertainment industry has manage to convince the majority that the financial meltdown was all because of greedy Wall St bankers.