Immigrants Have Been Worst Hit by Foreclosures in New York

Posted on January 20, 2009
Filed Under Repo Homes | 1 Comment

There has been some general improvement in the foreclosure climate in New York but Queens continues to suffer from its curse. In various ways the effects are now surfacing.

Propertyshark.com has been tracking the first-time foreclosures in the important cities. It had good news for other boroughs other than Queens. In the latter borough the first- time foreclosures had fallen from the third quarter but these were much higher than the figures of 2007, during the same period. First-time foreclosures were 492 during the last quarter of 2008. It shows an 84% spike from the previous year that had recorded 268 first-time foreclosures.

There were large number of drops in Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan in comparison to the third quarter of 2008 and marginal fall from that of 2007 during the same period.

Studying the tendency of first-time foreclosures one gets to understand that predatory lending continues to hold sway in these areas. The centre points of trouble have remained the same during the previous two years with foreclosures being vicious and at its worst in Sr. Albans, Hollis, Jamaica, South Jamaica and Queens.

Among the foreclosure zip codes the highest ranks are held by Jackson Heights, Corona and Elmhurst. This shows that the immigrant communities have been at the receiving end. Queens had the dubious distinction of having the 15 top zip codes in the city with the highest number of foreclosures. Of these 15, 13 zip codes had high concentrations of immigrant house owners.

In September 2008, the councilman of the city James Sanders Jr. (Democrat-Laurelton) had predicted in a prophetic manner that foreclosures would continue to sweep his own flock. He had said, “This could be the single greatest loss of black wealth since the Great Depression, the greatest loss of Asian wealth since the Japanese internment.”

Urgent meetings are being held among local housing advocates to do something effective. According to the findings of a non-profit group, Chhaya Community Development Corporation together with Milano New School of Management and Urban Policy the picture is grim for those of South Asian origin in Queens. Chhaya offers counseling on housing in Bengali, English, Hindi and Urdu. It will be getting funds from HUD as it has been recognized as one of its approved counseling centres. HUD is also considering the applications for recognition from similar other counseling groups in New York.

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