All About Long Island

I shouldn’t be surprised about the ever increasing number of foreclosures on Long Island.  After all, it’s old news and it’s pervasive.  My friends in real estate are experiencing upside down sales, short sales and foreclosures all over the country.  But it’s like anything else, you feel the sting when it gets too close to home.

A colleague of mine asked me recently to take a look at a home he was thinking of purchasing to flip.  He was looking for reassurance in these uncertain times that he was not biting off more than he could chew.  He asked me to meet him at the home and to give him my advice.  From the moment he gave me the address I had an uneasy feeling.  I knew this property.  As I drove up I got a lump in my throat.  It was as I feared, a house I sold not all that many years ago.  Sadness overcame me as I walked through the rooms with him, remembering the final walk through and the excitement this couple felt at finally owning a home after years of renting. 

It was hard to focus on the task at hand as memories flooded my brain.  These were good people — caught in difficult economic times.  Though they had moved a number of times before, it was always by choice, not happenstance.  My heart broke for them.  I don’t live under a rock and I see the direction the housing market has taken over the past two years, but this made it personal . . . too personal. 

The number of lis pendens (notice of pending action) in one town of Long Island in just the last 24 hours was six.  That’s astounding and it’s only one day.  The situation is critical and someone has to stop the bleeding and find a way for these people to be able to stay in their homes and get back on track.  I’m not talking about the people who used their homes as ATMs, pulling equity out time and again to finance their lifestyles.  I’m talking about people who simply need time to get back on track.

There was an article in Newsday that says it more succinctly than I can.  There were 134 homes repossessed on Long Island last month.  This is a microcosm of the national level of default.  Though the problem may have begun as a result of the subprime fiasco, it has filtered down to the mainstream loans, to people just like us.  It would behoove the powers that be to consider Hillary Clinton’s proposed moratorium on foreclosures.

Something needs to be done.  I hope someone is listening.