
The Michigan State of USA is located in the Midwest consists of two peninsulas and hugs the five great lakes as well as another – Lake Saint Clair. Metro Detroit is the largest urban zone in Michigan where 50% of the population resides. The capital is Lansing.
To understand bank owned properties in Michigan one needs to survey the demographics and economics. According to many experts the number of bank owned properties in Michigan has been determined by the sub-prime mortgages that were peddled largely to the Blacks. Michigan has a sizeable White population calculating to 81% and hence this is not a dominant cause for the increase in bank owned properties in Michigan.
It is the economy of the state that is largely responsible for the many bank owned properties in Michigan. Neither sub-prime meltdown nor busting of the housing boom is the prime reasons for bank owned properties in Michigan. It is the collapse of the automobile industry that led to an economic slump even before the surfacing of the foreclosure crisis.
By bank owned properties in Michigan are meant those foreclosed units that the banks have failed to sell at auctions. In Michigan both judicial non-judicial foreclosures are available. These houses have been taken over or repossessed by the banks. The banks are not landlords and the staggering number of bank owned properties in Michigan is causing concern. During the time of foreclosure the houses have suffered damage at the hands of exiting borrowers and later by vandals.
Empty houses with stagnant pools become havens for rats, snakes, frogs, termites and mosquitoes. The banks have to make patchwork repairs to these bank owned properties and put them back to be sold in a market that hardly has any buyers. Apart from pushing down the real estate market the stagnation in transaction is causing loss of revenue. The administration is short of funds at a time when there is increasing pressure to attend to increase in crime and outbreaks of fire.
Michigan ranked 6th in the nation in foreclosures this February 2009. The banks took over 5,000 units in this month. Foreclosure postings spiked by 10% compared to January 2009 and by 14.7% from February 2008. Across the country the jump noted was 30% in one year. In Michigan the foreclosure rate was 1:360 as against the national rate of 1:440. In February Michigan recorded 7,838 foreclosure sale notices and 4,726 bank repossessions.