The subprime mortgage meltdown and the wave of foreclosures that swept across the city and the nation continue to put New Yorkers at risk of losing their homes — despite a federal policy drafted to protect them. The Times reports that in the ten months since President Obama debuted his $75 billion plan to keep as many as four million Americans from being forced out of their homes due to foreclosure, only 31,000 homeowners have been able to negotiate permanent new mortgages. And in the city, where 20,000 homeowners faced foreclosure this year, lenders have offered new or trial mortgages to just 3 percent of homeowners who sought help. more ›

Don’t get too comfortable homeowners – the city’s foreclosure rate is skyrocketing, up a startling 66% in the first quarter of 2008 compared to last year, according to Crain’s and the housing research site Property Shark. Queens saw more foreclosures than the four other boroughs combined, with 508 in the first quarter, up 59% from the same period in 2007. more ›

Has the Super-real estate market finally encountered economic kryptonite? Manhattan's housing market has seemed utterly impervious to any hint of real estate meltdown, even as other boroughs have suffered mortgage foreclosures at four times the national average. But one can't pass a Chase bank branch or a Duane Reade before coming across yet another building going up or being retro-fitted as luxury condos. The New York Times has an article today indicating that the gilded age of upper-crust real estate may be losing its luster. more ›

According to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the 11233 zip code that encompasses Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights had the highest foreclosure rates for subprime mortgages in the entire nation in October. More than one in four people, or 25.2%, with subprime loans in the zip code lost their homes to foreclosure. That's almost four times the national average of 6.9%. more ›

An executive at a subprime loan company that was financially circling the drain stated that the murder of his wife and consequent suicide was not related to money worries, but personal problems. Walter Buczynski was a 59-year-old vice president of Fieldstone Mortgage Corp., a mortgage lending company sinking into bankrupty. He'd told neighbors that he would soon be looking for a new job, but they didn't sense an irregular level of distress. more ›

Of course, the continued high cost of fuel remains a brake on the economy. And if there's one thing that financial markets abhor, it is uncertainty. With the Presidential election eleven months off and a wide variety of candidates bandying about different economic proposals, it becomes difficult for investors to plan for or around what the future may hold. In short, hang on. As one analyst for Standard & Poor's wrote in a research note that was quoted in the Times, "The best investment may be in aspirins and a neck brace."
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