black…MYstory

When I read about home foreclosures rising, I hearken back to a couple of things. The first is how Bush and cronies touted the rate of black home buyers during his presidency. The second thing I am reminded of is that a disproportionately-high number of this same group of home buyers are now facing foreclosure.

Now, I am seeing that, for the third quarter in a row, home foreclosures has reached an all-time high. It now stands at a rate of .65% for the quarter. If that’s not sobering, think of this figure. Right now, 5.12% of home loans are now in deliquency so, we should expect this number to rise.

In my home state of Ohio, we are sitting at nearly twice the national average for foreclosures/delinquencies (this might have something to do with the more than 150,000 jobs lost when manufacturing was taken out of many Ohio towns). Neighboring states are not much better off — Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Pennsylvania are all being hit hard.

What’s driving all of this? Subprime lending is much to blame.

The funny thing is that, for many years, I have heard activists and organization rail against subprime lending (more often referred to as “predatory lending”) and its effects on borrowers of color. But, because this was almost seen as a “black” or “brown” thing, nobody paid attention to the outcry. Now, because this issue seems to be threatening the whole housing market, we are all hearing about it.

Also, in addition to the high delinquency rate we already have, things are about to get even more bumpy — there are some 2,000,000+ adjustable rate mortgages that will see their rates rise. This could mean monthly payments will be doubling or even tripling for some of these borrowers.

So, strap in — this is going to be rough ride.

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