208,078 New Listings - November 2009 - Last update November 20, 2009 12:30 PM EST 
Foreclosure Crisis Deepens Due To Economic Collapse
Detroit residents have been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis; it was recently reported in the Detroit News that 72,000 homes in Detroit have faced foreclosure in the last two years. Publicly the mortgage industry state that they find a 1% foreclosure rate to be alarming; foreclosure rates in Detroit city stand at 10% with the rate in some neighbourhoods as high as 17%.
The foreclosure crisis adversely affects the entire population of Detroit and Michigan, not just the owners of these homes. Firstly renters suffer as they are evicted when the houses they live in are foreclosed homes. Secondly the vast amounts of vacant houses depress the property values of all of the homes in the neighbourhood, and lead to the further decline of these neighbourhoods.
Michigan has faced huge economic problems over the last few years with huge job losses (Michigan has the highest rate of job losses in the country.) Over 420,000 jobs have been lost over the last seven years with a prediction from the University of Michigan that a further 51,000 jobs will be lost in 2008. The official unemployment rate for the state in 2007 rose to 7.2%. 33.6% of Detroiters were shown to earn incomes under the federal poverty line, and 47.8% of Detroit’s children were shown to be living in poverty by a Census Bureau study in 2007.
Members of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) are calling for a moratorium to be imposed on all foreclosures for a 5 year period. This is within the legal (and moral) powers of Governor Jennifer Granholm. During times of great public crisis the Governor by law, has both a right and a duty to declare a state of emergency. Michigan’s state constitution states that the health and welfare of the people is of primary concern.
A moratorium on foreclosures was enacted in Michigan and 25 other states during the great depression of the 1930’s. This law stopped foreclosures for five years and allowed residents to remain in their homes by paying a fair rent, and taxes and insurance under just and equitable terms as set by the court, during the depression.
This act The Michigan Mortgage Moratorium Act was declared as being constitutional by both the Michigan Supreme Court and US Supreme Court. The US Supreme Court ruled that the right of people to their homes in times of public crisis takes priority over contracts with banks and lenders.
The granting of a moratorium on foreclosures will grant valuable time during which the affected people will get some well deserved relief and they and our government and officials can work on a viable long term solution to this crisis.
The poor and working people as well as supporters and other concerned citizens of Michigan need to show a united front to the governor to force her through weight of numbers and popular opinion to declare a state of emergency and institute the moratorium on foreclosures.
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[...] Treasury is getting close to finalizing plans to change the structure of the two companies in this foreclosure crisis. The structural changes will include changes to the upper management. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae [...]