Foreclosure is driving homelessness across the nation, leaving the nation’s charities scrambling to find homes for tens of thousands of families from coast to coast. And, more frightening than anything else is the fact that the massive wave of foreclosures expected because of the resetting of adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) has not even hit yet.
Home renters, apartment renters, condo renters are all in the same boat when it comes to foreclosure. When the property is foreclosed on, out the door they go in many cases. Many are upset about the injustice of it all, but they’re still headed out in the street, along with tens of thousands of people who rented property which has now been foreclosed.
‘“I don't think it's fair for us," said Carlos Lopez, a south Scottsdale resident, who said his property owner is forcing him to move out of the home he rents because of foreclosure.’ Fair or not, Lopez and other renters from Puget Sound to Miami are getting kicked out of their rental apartments or houses because the landlord failed to pay the mortgage.
Record foreclosures have people scared--scared to sign a new lease. Lopez told his interviewer that, he didn’t think it was fair that he and his family had to move, and he’s not alone. Many renters are caught between a rock and a hard place—they’ve paid rent and expensive deposits, and not have to start all over again because the owner of the property failed to pay the mortgage.
Banks don’t want to be landlords and they’re throwing people out into the streets rather than hiring property managers to run foreclosed properties. The Boston Globe reports that, “Hundreds of tenants in foreclosed buildings have been evicted or are facing eviction by mortgage companies that do not want to be landlords.”(Globe, 10-21-07)
In Massachusetts, as many as 1400 families have been evicted from apartments as of mid-August, according to a Federal Reserve report quoted by the Globe. That’s 1400 in Massachusetts, 2500 in the Twin Cities. By now, more than 4,000 families have been evicted from apartments in two states, putting at least 12,000 people into the streets because of apartment foreclosure.
According to the posters of one financial blog, it’s a buyer beware market these days and renters need to check out prospective landlords. It used to be the landlord checked you out, to see if you were financial stable, had ever been evicted, arrested for drugs, etc. Now, the shoe is on the other foot, according to several housing advocates.
Your landlord’s business practices, his failure to pay his bills could become your worse nightmare, especially in those high rent cities which require monstrous security deposits.
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