Foreclosures Booming in Military Towns
Foreclosures Booming in Military Towns
New statistics show that foreclosures in military towns are occurring at a four times faster rate than around the rest of the country. While traditionally many soldiers and military families end up taking out loans on homes through the Veteran Affairs department, many of these families end up opting for the low initial costs and flashy low prices associated with sub prime mortgages in the past few years. However, as the rest of the country has also learned, these mortgages quickly become some of the hardest to keep up with, and lead many families to foreclosure.
In the past few years the number of VA loans being taken out sunk to a low that hasn’t been seen in over a decade, and now there are more fighting families in danger of losing their homes than their have been at any other time, many feel, since the Vietnam War.
The largest surge in foreclosures in a military area was in Columbia, SC, home to the training grounds for soldiers at Fort Jackson. The foreclosure rate there has risen just under 500% in only one year, sparking concern from all over the community. Another area with extremely high foreclosures was Norfolk, VA, home to the country’s biggest naval base.
Experts say military families were targeted by sub prime lenders because the fact that they tend to move a lot and are often overseas means that they tend to have bad credit, thus qualifying them for the loan.