Winnebago County WI Foreclosed Properties
Dec 7, 2009 | Filed under Foreclosed Houses | Comments (0)
The population density of this small county is light by all standards with only 357 people per square mile; the personal and societal effects of properties being repossessed has hit hard in this area of Wisconsin. A quick search of foreclosure property websites will list at least 100 separate foreclosed properties in Winnebago County alone, a startlingly high number.
After spending time searching for jobs in Winnebago County you will soon discover that you are banging your head against a wall, there simply is no employment growth in the area and many job advertising establishments have absolutely no jobs whatever to advertise for the area. This is one of the most vivid examples of where the credit squeeze and national economic downturn has hit a small community.
There is a clear connection between the number of properties being repossessed and the employment figures. With the annual average income for household in Winnebago County being set at around $45,000 (for two people earning), you do not have to be an economist to realise that if one of those people loses their job, then there will be an almost impossible task to meet the mortgage repayments. This fact could be misconstrued by looking at the simple statistic of unemployment in the region, which is currently at around 4.4%, a full 1.6% under the national average.
This misconnection can be better understood by realizing how much of Winnebago County’s income comes from farming. The recent hike in global food and fuel prices has meant farmers getting poorer and poorer, just being able to meet their operating costs. In many cases farmers are not being put out of work, they are simply working for significantly lower profit margins, they therefore do not get included in the unemployment figures, but they still struggle to re-pay sub-prime mortgages.
The price of a foreclosed property in Winnebago County can be very low indeed, some of them on sale for as little as $30,000 and the top end reaching only $100,000. These homes are being offered at these prices for a reason – they are not in good condition. As the levels of unemployment and poverty rise, so does the resentment for the banks. When homes are repossessed, homeowners often do what they can to make the house uninhabitable for future investors, making the market even more static as the foreclosed properties stay on the market for a long time.
When people see that they may struggle to repay their monthly payments they may think about selling, but with the excessive supply of newly built developments, and also the newly foreclosed properties, it is easy to see how they would be unable to sell. The homeowners are effectively trapped on a highway heading towards repossession, with no intersections in sight until at least the first quarter of next year.