Foreclosures Booming in Military Towns
May 27th, 2008 by 
admin
New statistics show that foreclosures in military towns are occurring at a four times faster rate than around the rest of the country. While traditionally many soldiers and military families end up taking out loans on homes through the Veteran Affairs department, many of these families end up opting for the low initial costs and flashy low prices associated with sub prime mortgages in the past few years. However, as the rest of the country has also learned, these mortgages quickly become some of the hardest to keep up with, and lead many families to foreclosure.
In the past few years the number of VA loans being taken out sunk to a low that hasn’t been seen in over a decade, and now there are more fighting families in danger of losing their homes than their have been at any other time, many feel, since the Vietnam War.
The largest surge in foreclosures in a military area was in Columbia, SC, home to the training grounds for soldiers at Fort Jackson. The foreclosure rate there has risen just under 500% in only one year, sparking concern from all over the community. Another area with extremely high foreclosures was Norfolk, VA, home to the country’s biggest naval base.
Experts say military families were targeted by sub prime lenders because the fact that they tend to move a lot and are often overseas means that they tend to have bad credit, thus qualifying them for the loan.
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2 Comments »
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:23 pm
[...] Foreclosures Booming in Military Towns New statistics show that foreclosures in military towns are occurring at a four times faster rate than around the rest of the country. While traditionally many soldiers and military families end up taking out loans on homes through the Veteran Affairs department, many of these families end up opting for the low initial costs and flashy low prices associated with sub prime mortgages in the past few years. However, as the rest of the country has also learned, these mortgages quickly become some of the hardest to keep up with, and lead many families to foreclosure. [...]
December 17th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
As a 23 year military family, our credit rating was excellent. The problem we encounter is that when the base housing is full, and there are no rentals in places safe enough to raise your children-you end up buying a home. Then, without warning, the military tells you to move (we had 6 weeks notice to move to South Korea) and you are looking for a buyer. Guess what, most of us who purchased a home after 2005 paid too much for it and we are upside down now. We didn’t fall for the ARM’s or subprime mortgages- we were caught by increasing prices of homes, and then told to leave anytime within 3 years. (we were here only 1 year) Our family couldn’t sell the house and we stayed behind while the service member moved to another state-took the housing allowance CUT, is in a tiny apartment and we are struggling financially for the first time in 23 years. Year one was fine-year two cut into our savings & investments and into year three we have nothing left and cutting back on what we can so we don’t lose the house. The service member can’t get back here, so he will retire in an imploding economic environment and we will have to declare bankruptcy if he can’t find a job. We behaved ourselves for 23 years, and now we may lose everything. It’s not that military people are unreliable – it’s the moving and trying to support two homes with one vacant that is hurting them. If the house goes into foreclosure- it can ruin a career, so they pay & pay & pay and struggle until a buyer comes along and take the loss. It’s not being able to find a buyer that has the greatest effect-not poor money management.