Wayne County, MI, tax foreclosure list fills 137 full newspaper pages

[Bozita]

Six columns per page. Classified ad style tiny print. Eight sections of today's Detroit Free Press.

And these were just the tax foreclosures.

Today's Freep weighs more than today's NY Times.

[Mari333]

1. and just look at these prices.

http://fizber.foreclosure.com/search/mi_163.html

[druidity33]

3. wow... a house for $5,000?

that's crazy...

:shrug:

[endless october]

5. wow.

and i thought there were a lot of foreclosures in my area.

[barbtries]

2. that is awful

do these house all stand vacant? so sorry to read this.

[haele]

4. What is that,, around 4k residences in tax foreclosure?

Around here, the standard newspaper foreclosure notice column with it's required legalize runs around 4 - 6 notices per column.
Thats close to or over 4000 tax foreclosure notices listed this weekend. In California, property taxes are due June and December, December being the final month of the tax year, and they start tax foreclosure in the county after 5 years since the homeowner first fell behind, so if one missed, say, June of 2003, they face foreclosure in December of 2008 if they don't pay the owed tax and late fees, even if they've been current since.
4000 homes? That's signs of a serious community economic problem.

Haele

[Bozita]

8. Actually, this list averages about 25 properties per column.

I selected three columns in 3 different sections and counted.

Results: 25, 23, 28.

[suede1]

6. Damn!

[MichiganVote]

7. And guess what sportsfans, what Michigan has been dealing with is all coming your way.

[Carni]

9. How bad is it there currently?

We lost our business in the metro Detroit area in the spring of 06 and ended up having to move out of state to find work (and that was in 06)

I would imagine it has to be bad...but I am wondering how it could be much worse than when we left (because it was horrendous then as far as I was concerned) and where the hell all these people are going who are in foreclosure?

This sounds like a horrendous situation!

[erinlough]

16. I live here and am surviving, but

I have two immediate family members on layoff. What we have done is hunker down. We planted a garden and canned this year and I bought the small (900 sq ft) house my son is renting because the owner was about to lose it and I could afford to hold it for another 5 years. He is paying rent which pays the mortgage. It was the only way I could see to make sure that the house he was renting was secure.

My sister works for Family Assistance agency ( welfare) and her caseload has multiplied from 90 when she started to 250 now. She tells me that the agency is getting 60 new requests for help PER DAY! On top of that the agency has cut the workforce from about 65 when she started to 30 now. I agree with the poster up thread that it is coming to you soon, no matter where you live. My suggestion is think creatively and group together to help each other. I will also say, I still love it here.

[Carni]

29. Well hang in there!

It sounds like you have made some very smart moves to brace you and your family against the storm!

[MichiganVote]

19. Worse than 06' b/c now the financial disease is eating into basic services, education and that

means that police and fire will not be far away. I expect the roads this winter to be hazardous due to cutbacks on road crews and salt. I saw a startling drop in retail just after the Bush speech when I went to Costco and it was deserted at a time when it usually would be teeming with people. Mall traffic is significantly down. Gas prices are better, hovering around %$1.99 to $2.25.

The unemployment rate keeps rising. So nothing new there. If foreclosures were gold we'd be in hog heaven. We have lost a sizable number of people and kids in the state, which in turn affects property taxes, retail, fees and so on. Because of the gas prices this summer the tourism expected up north did not materialize so more and more layoff's there.

I think what I notice most is people are very, very anxious in the state. Things that people once took for granted seem to grate on people more. I work with kids in the education end and I have more and more kids who are showing social or behavior problems. More requests for heat, food, clothing and X-Mas gifts.

I don't expect to have a job next year.

Guess you could say we're downsizing in Michigan. Sure would like to find one or more of the fuckers who have dumped this economic bullshit in our laps.

[Carni]

30. I cannot believe how everything spiraled

So quickly!

Let's hope something positive transpires for the entire country because like you said we're all going to be getting a big serving of this financial storm.

[knitter4democracy]

24. I've never seen it this bad. It's worse than the 70s.

We had our semi-annual church meeting today, and our deacon's wife announced that six families in a parish of maybe 40 families had all lost their jobs and were in dangerous straits. Families are moving out of state at a rate I've never seen; I volunteer at my kids' school, and I know how many we're losing. I see other problems there, too--kids absent and the phone number's been disconnected, kids only having a couple of outfits and needing hats and mittens for the winter, and fewer and fewer kids in scouts and extracurriculars.

I asked my parents, as they remembered the 70s better than I, and even they said they've never seen it like this. It feels like our state is dying, honestly, and it pisses me off that no one seems to care on a national level.

[4_TN_TITANS]

26. One of the wife's relatives moved here from MI

a couple of months ago. She's having trouble finding work in TN now.

[Carni]

28. I'm sorry to hear that

I cannot even imagine what is going to happen if GM and Ford actually do go belly up...

I barely recall the downturn in the 70's in MI because I was about 8 at the time but what I do remember is that things were pretty dismal.

I feel so bad for the people going through what is happening-- this trickle down thing didn't work out too well (again!) :(

[dugaresa]

22. It reared its ugly head in Pittsburgh in the late 70's and early 80's

and no one gave a shit..

More than 100,000 people lost their jobs during that economic meltdown.

Pittsburgh has been in recovery ever since then.

What I will say is this:

- it's hard to compete in a global market against companies that do the same thing for a lot less
- it's even harder to pay a decent and living wage when the folks working in China are willing to do it for a 1/10th of your salary.

What I learned:

- having a community built around only one industry is dangerous. If that industry fails or can't compete, the community dies. Problem is, no one worries about it until the industry is on its last leg.

What I am concerned about:

- The US manufacturing sector is declining rapidly.
- if the market gets flooded with cheap chinese made cars that are fuel efficient and very affordable...the US auto industry will die no matter the bailout..and we are particularly weak right now...this would be the appropriate time for the Chinese to just step on us. What I am trying to say is that we are profoundly vulnerable.


I think the only thing to hope for is an economic plan similar to the New Deal...rebuild infrastructure and invest in new technologies that start here and are manufactured here (tax incentives may help that happen).

[StreetKnowledge]

33. And......

......stopping those Chinese cars.

And I don't mean tarriffs on them, either. I mean THEY DO NOT DRIVE ON OUR ROADS, PERIOD.

Globalization has become a race to the bottom, and what we, and our parents, grandparents and great grandparents earned is being given away. So the Chinese can exploit our stupidity.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. I don't suppose you can get a picture of the newspaper, could you? n/t

[Bozita]

12. A similar list was published last November. It was available for viewing online.

www.freep.com

I looked earlier and couldn't find an online link. Perhaps it will be available later or tomorrow?

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Is that permanent? Or does it get "refreshed" when the info changes?

I'm looking for permanent documentation of how fucked up GOP-style economics really is.

I can see using a picture like this later in Obama's administration when the dumbass freepersheep try to blame him for Dumbya's depression.

[Bozita]

15. It's permanent. The same list will appear in the Nov. 23 and Nov. 30 editions of the Freep

[ColbertWatcher]

17. Will it change come December 7th? n/t

[Bozita]

23. Here's the photo

[sixmile]

11. I miss my hometown

But I'm glad I left it back in the 90's. If I were a billionaire...

[truedelphi]

14. What are Counties across the USA thinking??

You work hard all your life.

You buy a home. You pay off the mortgage. You do this day in, day out for years, and maybe even decades.

But in one of the worst economic years in history, you cannot scrape together 2 or 3 or 4 Grand to pay your taxes.

So now the County will boot you from your home, throw you into the street, while they throw your neighbors out of their homes, and this all in the cold of the winter, and for what?

In doing this, all these additional people become homeless and thus immediately able to get food stamps, and qualify to get free Social Services, etc?? Thus the cost of running this County just became astronomically more expensive!! **


Is there a whole group of people sitting in positions of power missing their grey matter there in Wayne County MI? TO me there is a solution - it seems that forbearance could be okay couldn't it? They could DEFER all these taxes - after all, at some point the residents will die or move out, and the County could then assess that value of the home that is vacated? But why do it now en masse?

The houses will, once vacated, become decrepit, dangerous and probably condemned. (This winter, most vacant houses will have their pipes burst. Then when it thaws you will have mold. Rodents will move in. Etc)


**(I have been sadly watching as neighbors of mine are going without just about everything rather than take the Dreaded Trip to Social Services here in Calif - if they apply for food stamps and for MediCal (the version of MediCare available to poor people who are not yet 62) they are afraid the County will seize their home. So believe me, the County of Wayne is gonna discover a whole new level of financial pain when the results of their decisions hit the fan.))

[intheflow]

20. Norquest's dream coming true.

Government is getting so small that when the people need the government's help, they drown. :cry: :grr:

To Norquist, who loves being called a revolutionary, hardly an agency of government is not worth abolishing, from the Internal Revenue Service and the Food and Drug Administration to the Education Department and the National Endowment for the Arts. "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years," he says, "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."

-- The Nation, April 26, 2001

[csziggy]

21. I don't know how it works in Michigan but in Florida it takes five years

Before a property can be sold for a tax lien. Tax certificates are sold each year so the counties have operating expenses. Anyone can buy tax certificates - you bid on them and the lowest interest bid gets the certificate. If the property owner gets the money to pay, they must pay the amount including the accrues interest and penalties for each tax certificate sold. After five years if the tax certificates have not been paid, the property is foreclosed on, then goes up for public auction - the winner bidder must pay all the tax certificates as well as their bid amount.

My Dad used to invest in tax certificates. Back in the 1980s they were good investments, getting as high as 18% interest. But then a court decision came down stating that a debtor could get out of paying property taxes and many people stopped buying the certificates. Plus banks got into bidding for them and bid the interest rates down to where the risk outweighed the income - banks were willing to take interest as low as 3% in some cases.

[knitter4democracy]

25. I agree. Cities and counties are strapped, so they're messing with taxes.

My brother runs a factory in Hillsdale, and he's fighting them over their moving up when the taxes were due and then not doing much to let people know. In addition to his over $25K in taxes, they charged an eight-hundred dollar late fee because his office assistant got it to them one day late. He's hired forty people there who wouldn't have had jobs otherwise, many of whom have even bought houses, but they're telling him that he just has to suck up and deal. He's seriously considering moving the business to a better place, all because they're refusing to dicker over a tax bill.

I don't get it. I really don't.

[truedelphi]

31. That is so sick. n/t

[knitter4democracy]

34. My brother's furious about it.

After promising him their town was very pro-business, they've pulled crap like this on him--this in an area hemorraging jobs.

[truedelphi]

35. I am sorry your brother has to deal with this. Here's a tidbit abt how San Francisco operates:

The city has a lot of people hurt and killed at intersections with lights.

Researchers claim the death toll increased at a certain point in time.

Well, lo and behold - it turns out that att that point in time the city decided to chop down the amount of time between the yellow and red lights - so that cops could write up my drivers for going through the lights.

Except that then it ends up that the lights are not the only thing drivers ended up going through!!

[Michigan-Arizona]

18. Wayne County

About 4 month's ago my daughter bought a foreclosed home for around 74,000 that was mortgaged for 280,000. It was built in 1939, almost 2,200 sq. ft., attached garage, & over an acre of ground. I was born & raised in Michigan but now live in Arizona where home's do not seem to be selling either, which maybe become foreclosure's down the road. I have friend's here that have had their home's on the market for quite awhile with no looker's let alone buyer's.

[truedelphi]

32. The reason that people with their homes on the markets are not selling

is because a buyer can write out what they want, go to a realtor who deals with foreclosures and get what they want for anywhere from 50 to 65% less than what you would get if you wanted to list your home at what you assume to be fair market value.

In the SF Bay area, the foreclosure market is now 50% of the real estate market. So at a time when credit is pinched off for all but a few, losing that few to the foreclosure market is a big deal.

[sufrommich]

27. That's my county and I'm not surprised at all. nt