Archive for January, 2009

More empty space is expected this year as more jobs are lost and businesses become unstable. Rental income and property values decline. In fact, 2009 is predicted to be the worst year of the commercial real estate market.

As foreclosure filings soared to about 2.2 million last year, personal bankruptcy filings also soared from 801,840 million in 2007 to 1.06 million in 2008, based on data released by the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Foreclosures have once again brought a huge impact on housing markets. Out of twenty cities in October 2007, 14 have shown declines in home prices. These declines have already reached up to 18% as compared to records from the previous year. According to David Blitzer, chair of Index Committee at Standard & Poor's, this record was last exhibit in March of 2004.

Max Rameau, a housing advocate, stated that empty homes are a sign of continuous foreclosure, but a good chance for homeless people.

Foreclosure filings have not stopped despite the introduction of loan modification programs by Citigroup, Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), by the Federal Deposit and Insurance Corp. (FDIC) at IndyMac Federal Bank and by several other mortgage lenders.