CAPITAL REGION Sch’dy County ranks high in foreclosures County rate tops in area, 15th highest in state BY MICHAEL LAMENDOLA Gazette Reporter Reach Gazette reporter Michael Lamendola at 395-3114 or lamend@dailygazette.com.
Schenectady County ranked 15th in the state in foreclosures last year, the highest of any county in the Capital Region, according to a firm that tracks foreclosures nationally. Local lenders and credit counselors offered the following reasons for the ranking: the continued grip of high unemployment on the region, 7 percent in December versus 3.1 percent in 2000; a growing number of divorces sparked by financial stress; large medical bills; over-stretched household budgets. Property taxes also are a factor in the foreclosure rate, they said, but not the defi ning factor. Schenectady County had 300 properties in foreclosure in 2010, or one out of every 222 houses, for a rate of 0.45 percent, according to RealtyTrac. The state had 44,000 houses in foreclosure, or one out of every 182, for a rate of 0.55 percent. Putnam County ranked first with 587 houses in foreclosure, or one out of every 63 houses, for a rate of 1.58 percent. Montgomery County ranked 18th and Albany County ranked 19th with homes in foreclosure. Saratoga County ranked 33rd; Fulton, 36th; and Schoharie, 45th. RealtyTrac monitors more than 1.5 million default, auction and bank-owned listings from more than 2,200 U.S. counties, along with detailed property, loan and sales data. Schenectady County’s 2010 foreclosure rate represented a 31 percent increase from the prior year, but a 26 percent decline from 2008, according to RealtyTrac. Patricia Hall-Murray, a foreclosure counselor with Better Neighborhoods Inc. of Schenectady, said she was not surprised by the county’s foreclosure ranking. BNI is a nonprofi t homeownership center and federally approved housing counseling agency. “It is a combination of a lot of things,” Hall-Murray said. “It definitively is a factor of unemployment; it is medical issues; it is two-income families being reduced to one income; it is people having their job hours reduced; it is people losing their jobs and finding jobs that pay less; and it is people not being able to make ends meet.” Hall-Murray said the foreclosure problem is affecting people of all walks of life in Schenectady County, not just a specifi c segment of the population and not just the city of Schenectady. “We are seeing a lot of hot pockets out there. People are coming from all over,” she said. BNI at first saw people struggling with subprime mortgages coupled to adjustable interest rates, Hall-Murray said. These are high-risk mortgages made to people with inadequate finances who found they could not make payments when their interest rates increased, as they do periodically. ...................>>>>....................>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00300&AppName=1
Local lenders and credit counselors offered the following reasons for the ranking: the continued grip of high unemployment on the region, 7 percent in December versus 3.1 percent in 2000; a growing number of divorces sparked by financial stress; large medical bills; over-stretched household budgets. Property taxes also are a factor in the foreclosure rate, they said, but not the defi ning factor.
Why does the Gazette employee Lamendola? He's a shill for the Democrat Party. This is the silliest explanation I think I've ever heard. How can you not link the HIGH taxes to unemployment? Businesses don't do business in Schenectady County because of HIGH TAXES. That means NO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY! Divorce rate, medical bills? How is divorce rate and medical bills higher in Schenectady County than the rest of the State? Let me guess, Susan Savage and the Democrats are going to announce that they are applying for a grant to study the anomaly of Schenectady having the highest divorce rate and medical bills in the Capital Region as a way to address the high foreclosure rate. The Gazette has become laughable on this one. The apparatchiks are circling the wagons around their wounded leaders. It is now to the point of embarrassing.
Cicero, it's not much of a story if under the headline the only sentence is:
"The taxpayers are forced to pay triple the amount of property and school taxes than that of surrounding Counties for high crime, failing schools and an imploding infastructure."
The Gazette is a sorry excuse for a newspaper, always slanting the stories and misleading its readers. Aren't our news outlets supposed to be the government watchdogs for the people? The reasoning the Gazette gives to what is behind the foreclosure rate is divorce and medical problems, but nothing to do with taxes and public policy is a disgrace. The fact is, high property taxes stretch peoples budget so thin, that when the natural peaks and valleys of the economic cycle happen, or an unexpected accident, the excessive taxations doesn't allow people to save enough to weather the storm. Schenectadians are forced to live on a shoestring budget, and if you are a victim of many of life’s misfortunes you are forced to walk away from your home and stand in line at the DSS Building. And that's the way they want it - DEPENDENT.
You can't expect a family earning $30K a year to pay $5K in taxes on a $100K home and still save for unexpected medical emergency like a car accident that would keep a person out of work.
The government officials with the help of the liberal cheerleading newspaper believes that lying to the people and keeping them dumbed down keeps their controlling foothold.
Savages and satabarbars landslide loss was just the beginning of the downfall of this socialist empire. Schenectadians must have stopped drinking the city water and are coming out of their dumbed down coma state.
HIGH TAXES are the reason for making schenectady the winner with the 15th highest foreclosure rate.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
DV will say "it was a flawed study." "It is really not that bad." "We did comparatively well for our size" and on and on trying to run cover for his masters and mistresses.
"While Foreign Terrorists were plotting to murder and maim using homemade bombs in Boston, Democrap officials in Washington DC, Albany and here were busy watching ME and other law abiding American Citizens who are gun owners and taxpayers, in an effort to blame the nation's lack of security on US so that they could have a political scapegoat."
Why does the Gazette employee Lamendola? He's a shill for the Democrat Party. This is the silliest explanation I think I've ever heard. How can you not link the HIGH taxes to unemployment? Businesses don't do business in Schenectady County because of HIGH TAXES. That means NO EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY! Divorce rate, medical bills? How is divorce rate and medical bills higher in Schenectady County than the rest of the State? Let me guess, Susan Savage and the Democrats are going to announce that they are applying for a grant to study the anomaly of Schenectady having the highest divorce rate and medical bills in the Capital Region as a way to address the high foreclosure rate. The Gazette has become laughable on this one. The apparatchiks are circling the wagons around their wounded leaders. It is now to the point of embarrassing.
This has been no secret to anyone in the real estate industry. The high taxes cause high foreclosures, high divorce rate and the highest unemployment in the area. Not the other way around. No one wants to buy anything in this County. Wait until Cuomo lays off 10,000+ State workers at one time. Then you'll see "rebirth". People will run away from this County taking only clothes and furniture.
Leave it to the morons at the Gazetto to have it arse backwards. Then they add insult to injury by trying to pooh-pooh the high tax disaster. Just like they did when the pathetic "mayor for life" got caught red handed trying to steal from State taxpayers. He was really trying to resolve an inequitable situation?-lol-
Decrease in home values, high taxes, fees and fines could not possibly be the reason for this award, huh?
Schenectady has the highest vacancy rate....wonder why?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
and that's why the $15.00/hour jobs at the battery plant are an F'EN joke....you cannot have a family and own a home......IT IS UNSUSTAINABLE...
Schenectady is Egypt....only not in turmoil YET
Gee, shouldn't the union fight for higher wages?
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Logged
This has been no secret to anyone in the real estate industry. The high taxes cause high foreclosures, high divorce rate and the highest unemployment in the area. Not the other way around. No one wants to buy anything in this County. Wait until Cuomo lays off 10,000+ State workers at one time. Then you'll see "rebirth". People will run away from this County taking only clothes and furniture.
