Michigan getting wacked hard by Lending, job loss crises

[n2doc]

Housing Crisis Knocks Loudly in Michigan
Foreclosures Hit Record Numbers as Region Continues to Lose Jobs
By Dina ElBoghdady
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 31, 2007; Page A01


DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. -- Janet Laitis leaned on a chain-link fence in her front yard, dragged on a cigarette and pointed to the homes on her block that lenders have seized in just the past two weeks.

"There. There. There," said Laitis, 70, pointing across the street, down the street and then to the modest ranch house next door. "This neighborhood is deteriorating before my eyes."

Within a square mile of Laitis's house in this bedroom community outside Detroit, more than half the 96 homes on the market are foreclosed properties. The situation is not uncommon in pockets of the industrial Midwest, where a record number of people are missing their mortgage payments and losing their homes.

While lax lending policies have been blamed for the unfolding home-mortgage crisis across the country, the distress in the Midwest has been exacerbated by fundamental problems with the economy. The region has been devastated by a severe drop in manufacturing jobs as the U.S. automobile industry shrinks.

"There's a structural shift going on that's undermining the unionized, industrialized states, and Michigan is leading the way," said Donald Grimes, a senior research specialist at the University of Michigan. "When you talk to people in Michigan, you can tell from their voice and their demeanor that they are just depressed."


much more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/30/AR2007033002127.html

[Erika]

1. Karen Hughes told India that the U.S. isn't producing educated

workers to be competitive. She congratualted India for doing so.

Our kids cannot afford a college education. But she blames the Americans.

[MiaCulpa]

2. More than depressed

I just moved to southern MI from oakland co., where there was yet another murder-suicide today:

LYON TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- The Oakland County Sheriff's Department is at the scene of what Sheriff Michael Bouchard said is a murder-suicide in Lyon Township.

Police said a man shot his estranged wife, left home, and then came back and shot himself not far from the house. The couple's daughter, who is in her 30s, was inside the home at the time.

The daughter escaped from the home when she said she saw her father coming out of the bedroom holding a weapon.

"It seems to be happening all too often in this area where we have a domestic situation turn into a tragedy," Bouchard said.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/11457713/detail.html


One of the most horrible instances that I recall in my former town, a policeman (who allegedly had more bills than he could handle anymore after re-financing his home, and other credit problems) that he shot his young son, his wife, the family dog, then himself, called 911 after setting the house afire. No one survived. Also Oakland Co.

As if that's not enough, the crime is...well, I shouldn't complain there. It could be Iraq. Also worth noting is that the Gov. recently called for preparations to be made for state services to be shut down around the middle of the year as it is out of money.

[Erika]

3. But Karen Hughes blames Americans and gave tribute

to American companies who had moved overseas.

[MiaCulpa]

4. Link?

Karen Hughes...:P

[Bozita]

5. A Free Press article last week said 1 of every 21 homes in Wayne County was foreclosed last year

IMHO, it's gonna be worse this year. The "for sale" signs are present in greater numbers.

For that article in the Detroit Free Press, check the Michigan Forum.

[Erika]

6. Do a Google on Karen Hughes and India

Hughes simply stated American youth were lacking in education to meet the future's needs.

[BayCityProgressive]

7. Michigan is a mess

we have record bankruptsies, foreclosures, and utility shut offs, but Gov. granholm is useless and does nothing. The ONLY reason I voted fro her was to defeat Devos. She is a horrid governor. She could declare in economic state of emergency, which we have been pressuring her to do but she refuses. It was declared in the 1930's and is a protected right in our state constitution. It has been upheld by the supreme court. It places a moratorium on all bankruptsies, foreclosures, and utility shut offs. She is DLC though, so it will never happen.

[SoCalDem]

8. I know that people get pissed at governors, but

it's not always their faults, and sometimes there is very little they can do. The south, has been luring businesses for decades with lax regulations, and low /no taxes..and tons of cheaper labor (no unions)..as the tax base moves out, it takes the jobs, and leave the unemployed behind..It does not take a genius to figure out what follows. It's been this way in the "rust belt" for a long time.

Governors need money to make changes, and don't look for Blue State governors to get much help from rabid republican administrations.

These things are cyclical and once the boomers start dying off in large numbers, things should start to get better..