Pain in Passaic

The differences between two bordering counties of Bergen and Passaic could not be more stark. It looks like the foreclosure issues have barely even touched Bergen while Passaic is in a world of hurt. Over at Redorbit there is an informative article as to just how bad things are over in Passaic in an article simply titled Passaic County Had Highest Foreclosure Rates in North Jersey.

First, the US average for properties at some stage of foreclosure one in every 501. New Jersey as a whole is doing better with a rate of one in every 695 homes. But lets take a look at some of the individual counties as stated in the article -

In North Jersey, foreclosures were most common in Passaic County, where one in every 369 properties was in foreclosure, far more than in Bergen (one in every 1,612), Hudson (one in every 872) or Morris (one in every 1,086).

Wow! According to these stats, the foreclosure process has started in Passaic almost 4-1/2 times as frequently as in neighboring Bergen. What a significant difference! Lets continue with the article to find out how they are explaining the increase -

Foreclosures have been on the rise because many home buyers got interest-only, no-money-down or adjustable-rate mortgages in the first half of this decade. As their mortgage payments have reset at higher amounts, many of these homeowners are finding they cannot afford to pay. In addition as home values ballooned during the housing boom, many homeowners borrowed against their home equity, and now find they cannot afford to repay those loans.

Now to put Passaic's distress into perspective against the rest of the country - Neveda the hardest hit state is currently at one in 122 foreclosures, California is at one in 192 and Arizona is one in 201. Obviously the foreclosure and housing problems are affecting certain areas much more significantly than others - both nationally and locally.

Unfortunately Passaic's information is not easily accessible to figure out where exactly the activity is taking place. Are the foreclosures and defaults spread throughout the whole county? Has the middle class enclave of Wayne been hit as hard as the neighboring city of Paterson? If we find out any further details on these problems we will bring them to you immediately.