Rising LTVs cause homeowners to walk away

In many cases rising LTVs is the main cause for foreclosure. A Newsday report looks into last month's Nassau county foreclosure filings which are up a staggering 113% on the year.

"We don't have massive job losses, nothing along the lines that would trigger this," he said. "We have a fact where people now say 'I have a house. I paid $600,000 for it, and my next-door neighbor is paying $429,000. What am I doing here?"

"Last year at this time, people would ask you about foreclosures and you'd say 'Yeah, there are dozens of foreclosures, but there's no use to them because they're basically priced the same as the house next door.' Now, all of a sudden, it's insane. We went to a house in East Meadow, where the house next door was the identical split at $549,000 and we had the foreclosure to the right of it and it was $429,000."


source: Nassau foreclosure filings jump 113% in year
BY ELLEN YAN, Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/business/ny-bzmort0515,0,3317971.story