Housing Bubble
Foreclosures.com say New Jersey's hot housing market helps homeowners in default
July 01, 2003
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE) --Alexis McGee, president of the northern California-based foreclosure property investment advisory firm www.Foreclosures.com said today that New Jersey's strong housing market is helping homeowners in trouble sell their way out of foreclosure.
"The market strength is coming from a shortage of supply," Ms. McGee said. "Residential building permits are forecast at 28,000 for 2003, virtually unchanged from the previous three years." She said that while price appreciation was slowing, the low supply was reducing the time on market for homes offered for sale.
"New Jersey's economy is still very sluggish," said Ms. McGee. "255,000 people in the state are out of work. A lot of them are in danger of losing their homes." She pointed to inner city unemployment rates of 12.5% in Atlantic City, 10.4% in Trenton, and 9.5% in Jersey City. "The overall rate for the state may be 5.8%, but that masks serious problems in cities dependent on weak sectors in the economy like financial services and tourism."
Forreclosures.com has been publishing foreclosure property data and assisting investors in California on their website www.foreclosures.com for over a decade. The company recently extended its services to cover the state of New Jersey, and the metro areas of New York City, Chicago, and Phoenix AZ.
"Our mission," said Ms. McGee, "has always been to help investors locate troubled homeowners and enable them to conserve some equity with a quick cash sale. That's better than losing everything including their credit in a sheriff's auction."
Ms. McGee said the light at the end of New Jersey's economic tunnel was still very dim. "The situation there mirrors the slow national recovery," she said. "They're forecasting gross state product growth of 4.7% for 2003, but job growth was negative by 0.4% in 2002, and the 2003 forecast is only 0.9% positive. That's not going to help people who are trying to hang on to their homes."
Source: foreclosures.com
