For many Americans the foreclosure crisis is nothing but a jumble of numbers and percentages, but here in the far edges of Queens, the human toll of the housing collapse is felt full force.
Foreclosures have popped up like weeds through the pavement, engulfing entire city blocks and profoundly altering people's lives.
In one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the city, a three-by-three-block section of South Jamaica, the Daily News found 98 properties in foreclosure from January 2006 through this month. This is ground zero of New York's foreclosure mess: Linden Blvd. to the north, Foch Blvd. to the south, 145th St., Inwood St., 146th and 147th Sts. west to east. No street is spared.
Some families are homeless, others are split in money fights. Plugs have been pulled on utilities. Abandoned houses have attracted rodents.
Five years ago, housing prices began to rise. Banks lowered requirements for high-risk lenders by offering subprime loans, with little or no money down and few questions asked.
Buried in the small print was the time bomb named ARM - the adjustable-rate mortgage. A mortgage holder would get a favorable interest rate up front, but it would jump dramatically.
The News looks at what happened on these blocks after the subprime gold rush.
These are some of the people behind the awful statistics.
Don't be so quick in condemning all of them. Not everyone is a financial expert. And many of these people did a rare thing: they trusted someone else.
Who would think that someone in a legitimate job wearing a suit was a sociopathic criminal?
If you want to live in a country where you have to watch out for everyone being a goddammed shark, please get the fuck out of this country -- NOW!
Believe this: The day will come when you crooks will want to flee.
And that day is called Too Late.
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