Changing Demographics of the Foreclosure Crisis

clipped from blogs.wsj.com Not even affluent homeowners are safe from the foreclosure crisis. In Maryland, “counties with high incomes and pricey housing were among the hardest hit,” the Baltimore Sun found “All but two of the 10 most affluent counties — those with median household incomes topping $70,000 — saw foreclosure cases rise by more than 50 percent Are these communities destined to become “slumburbs?” As foreclosures hit even the most affluent areas, suburbs may become tomorrow’s slums, writes Carol Lloyd of the San Francisco Chronicle. “We’re not talking about mean inner-city streets getting meaner, we’re talking about the pristine, newly built developments of four-bedroom, three-bath dream homes produced in the last housing boom becoming ghettos for the poor and the disenfranchised Looters stealing copper pipe and siding from new homes, gunshots puncturing picture-perfect facades, squatters taking up residence in abandoned houses,”