Wisconsin Foreclosed Houses
Nov 30, 2009 | Filed under Foreclosed Houses | Comments (0)
Wisconsin’s major industry has historically been dairy farming; in fact the state is the second largest producer of diary products after California. The alternative industries in the state are tourism and the service industries, such as medicine and education. The population is not elderly, with 55.5% being of working age.
In order to better understand the reasons behind the huge increases in foreclosed houses in Wisconsin, it is important to understand the basis for economic development across the state. As global food and fuel prices have risen over the past twelve months, it is the farmers who have suffered and not the major supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart. The supermarkets maintain, or even raise their prices in order to keep their profit levels high, whilst the farmers’ margins are cut to make way for the differences in the market.
So whilst we may see unemployment levels in some areas of Wisconsin slightly lower than the national average of 6.1%, in Michigan they are up to 8.9%. Farmers are not being made unemployed they are simply being paid less for their work, whereas in the cities, people are losing jobs.
The other significant contributing factor to the downturn in the economy of Wisconsin is tourism. The first element of life to be put on hold in times of economic hardship is luxuries such as travel and tourism. Tourism income has decreased across the state and job losses have resulted and for those who fell into the sub-prime mortgage trap, they will be seeing repayments rise above expectations that they cannot meet with a decreased or non-existant income.
For those whose houses have been repossessed, the chances of returning onto the property market are slim as deposit requirements are higher than ever and credit ratings are more stringent than before the credit squeeze. It appears that particularly in Wisconsin, the investors with cash are being given the opportunity to profit from the misfortunes of the less wealthy. So the poor become homeless and the rich get richer, whilst communities across the state suffer from abandoned homes and vandalism.
The industry of foreclosing is seeing a huge number of houses for sale across the state at foreclosure auctions where three or four bedroom properties that were bought for $200,000 are being sold for less than half that value. The banks, too it seems are desperate to recover their debt levels as they realise that they have over-extended themselves by borrowing too much. When the confidence in the banking sector is brought into question the housing system grinds to a halt resulting in the foreclosed houses remaining on the market for a long time. The picture is bleak, with the only good news being that it won’t last forever.