FORECLOSURES HIT THE RICH

More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic. In an article in this morning’s TIMES, the point is made that the housing bust we are witnessing right now is not only affecting the poor or bad-credit borrowers….it is also hitting the rich. This is especially evident in markets such as California, Nevada and Florida. Even one of those super-rich-glam REAL housewive’s of New Jersey is in trouble (imagine!). Is this problem an issue in Manhattan? I doubt it. Of course some high end property owners are indistress, but the vast majority are not. We need to remind ourselves how large a percentage of homes in New York are either rental properties or co-ops where requirements to purchase prevented risky purchasers from buying. Deflation would be the number one cause for the rich to walk away from a property, so while inflation is a fear, deflation is the bigger fear.