Central Jersey foreclosures soaring

From the Home News Tribune:

Mortgage crisis hits home in N.J.

A Joint Economic Committee report released Wednesday revealed that four Central New Jersey counties combined to be among the top 50 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates in the country.

Middlesex, Somerset, Monmouth and Ocean counties joined the Camden and Newark metro areas on the not-so-distinguished list put out by the JEC, one of four standing joint committees of Congress.

“What we are facing is a tsunami of foreclosures,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who on Tuesday joined Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to rail against a mounting subprime mortgage foreclosure problem.

“Just a few short years after home ownership levels soared to record highs, the harsh reality brought on by unreasonable mortgages has come crashing down on millions of homeowners,” Menendez said.

There were 10,075 foreclosures in Central New Jersey last year, according to the JEC report, which ranked the area 48th out of 50 metro areas on the list. This means 1 in 87 homes, out of approximately 877,000, faced or are in the early stages of foreclosure, said JEC spokesman Israel Klein.

The report also said the number of foreclosures caused Central Jersey home values to decline by $3,153 on the average home, which they listed as $350,300.

A local housing counselor said the foreclosure rate in the area soared and that she has heard a growing cry for help.

“I don’t know what happened but this month, the number of calls . . have really picked up,” said Claire Lawrence, interim executive director of the Housing Coalition of Central New Jersey, a New Brunswick-based HUD-approved housing counseling agency that serves Middlesex County and Franklin. “The problems are all over (the county).”

Lawrence said she is “dumbfounded” at the extremely high mortgage payments people who come to her agency are expected to pay. Some, she added, are three to five months behind on those payments.

“The problem is most of these people got into mortgages they can’t afford,” she said. “Others were barely just making their mortgage payments but because of job loss, illness or something else, they are struggling.”