WAVE 3 Investigates: Home foreclosures rates in the Louisville area

Kentucky Foreclosure & Real Estate News

By Shayla Reaves

LOUISVILLE (WAVE) -- The mortgage crisis is hitting parts of Kentuckiana extremely hard. Even though you might be on time with your payments, foreclosures in your neighborhood means that your property value goes down. WAVE 3's Shayla Reaves investigates the ripple effects.

It doesn't matter if you've got a good rate and follow the rules. Foreclosure can hit home for anyone.

Carol Richardson always dreamed of owning her own home. But after 11 years, she's about to lose the home she shared with her husband Jack. He died unexpectedly and now Carol can't afford the mortgage payment on her own. Carol estimates she's two months away from foreclosure and losing it all.

In the latest U.S. market statistics, Kentucky ranks 36th in the country when it comes to foreclosures -- that's one for every 809 homes in the state. It's a number that doesn't compare at all to Indiana. The Hoosier state ranks in the top ten with one out of every 196 homes affected by foreclosure.

You've got a reasonable interest rate and you pay your mortgage on time. So you think this doesn't affect you. Well, you better think again.

"Because one foreclosure in the neighborhood really won't affect the overall neighborhoods value. But in a neighborhood where you have 10% of the homes being foreclosed on or more than that, all of the house would have a negative effect of their value," says D.J. Hines, chief financial officer for Schuler Bauer real estate in southern Indiana.

Hines went on to say, "How many people -- when the ecomony was really good -- wanted to by into the American dream? That's what we all want. And in doing that, they didn't look at the long term consequences. They looked at 'what is my monthly payment going to be next month after I brought this house?' and if it was reasonable, they went ahead with the purchase. Now that the economy has changed, their job situation has changed or their interest rates have come up with some of the types of mortgages out there that have adjusted, they find they can no longer afford it."

Hines calls the foreclosures a backlash of helping people achieve the American dream.

Just to give you a better idea of what's going on in Indiana, we contacted the Indiana Association of Realtors. For September 2007, foreclosures are up 11.6% from the same time period last year.

For more information on Kentucky foreclosure rates and related news, visit the Kentucky Foreclosure homepage.

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