According to an article in the Dallas Morning News over 50,000 homes in North Texas went into foreclosure, a 17 percent increase from 2007. And currently an estimated 3.7 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth area home mortgages are at least 90 days delinquent.
Experts predict that foreclosures will continue to rise as delinquent homeowners and those who face job losses are unable to catch up on payments.
In a healthy economy, the implosion of the housing industry would be able to correct itself, with job losses being absorbed by other industries; but our unhealthy economy is unable to compensate. The current foreclosure crisis is having a ripple effect on all industries which is snowballing quickly causing job losses, foreclosures and ultimately bankruptcies to pile up and become detrimental to all financial sectors.
This is why it is crucial that Congress and President Obama pass changes in the bankruptcy law that will allow struggling homeowners facing foreclosure to modify their toxic mortgages in bankruptcy. Court approved mortgage modifications are probably the most effective tool in staving off future foreclosures, that’s why we must act now.