Foreclosure crisis extends to wealthy areas

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July 14, 2008

Anonymous The News Courier Mon Jul 14, 2008, 09:29 AM CDT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — After plaguing modest neighborhoods for more than a year, the foreclosure crisis is starting to spread into affluent areas.

Lawyers and real estate agents say they have noticed that more owners of homes valued at $500,000 or more have been defaulting on their mortgages. They say that’s an indicator the tanking economy and credit crisis are starting to hit wealthier households.

“We’ve never seen them before in the numbers that we are seeing them now. Never,” Robert Maddox, a real estate lawyer with Birmingham law firm Bradley Arant Rose & White, told The Birmingham News.

Experts have said foreclosures in middle-class and lower-income areas were primarily a product of unsophisticated buyers and risky loans. But they say that’s not usually the case in more affluent areas.

Compared with the rest of the country, Birmingham ranks low in foreclosure filings, and foreclosures on more expensive homes are still relatively rare. But 25 of the foreclosed homes listed by the Birmingham Multiple Listing Service last week were valued at more than $500,000, up from 17 a few days earlier.

Maddox said many owners of high-dollar homes got used to the ease of getting home loans and home equity lines of credit. They may also have been caught off guard by adjustable rate mortgages, and lost income resulting from the flagging economy.

“The upper class is not susceptible to gas at $4 a gallon, but they are susceptible to having their mortgage payment double,” Maddox said.

The variety of loans made available to all homebuyers during the past 10 years caused people from all income levels to buy more expensive homes than they could afford, using financing they may not really have understood, said Paul Holley, president of Abana Realty.

Although the real estate market has grown tighter, Holley said the expensive homes will still sell.

“Every property is different, and when you have the right buyer for the right property come along, you have a sale,” he said. “If you price anything right right now, it will sell.”

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