October 23,,
2009
GUEST EDITORIAL
The Housing Situation in Goffstown
By IVAN BELIVEAU
|
|
Presumably the housing situation in Goffstown isn’t too different from what is being reported in the U.S. According to the Associated Press:
"The number of households caught up in the foreclosure crisis rose more than 5 percent from summer to fall as a federal effort to assist struggling borrowers was overwhelmed by a flood of defaults among people who lost their jobs.”
"The foreclosure crisis affected nearly 938,000 properties in the July- September quarter, compared with about 890,000 in the prior three months according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc. That puts foreclosure-related filings on a pace to hit about 3.5 million this year, up from more than 2.3 million last year."
According to an article on CNNMoney.com, these numbers could already be understated, "because lender and government actions have delayed the filings. As a result, some delinquencies have not been counted on the foreclosure tallies. That means the crisis may not end quickly."
The pain of having to go to bed at night wondering whether your house will be taken away is unimaginable…especially after just losing a job (10-20% of the US population.)
Add to the above circumstances the fact that the price of houses has dropped substantially and seems to be resistant to the FED efforts to re-inflate prices by devaluing the dollar.
This isn’t even the end of the crisis since 2010 & 2011 will see the other half of the adjustable rate mortgage interest rates being reset to a higher interest rate.
There at least two obvious conclusions from the above: 1) Raising the property taxes on houses in Goffstown to pay the town and schools bills isn’t such a fair idea; 2) Using property prices at all as a means of generating tax revenues instead of something closer to someone’s ability to pay doesn’t seem fair in the least.
I just thought that you had the Right to Know.
|
