"If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look around you," says the Michigan state motto. The slogan speaks to our state's marvelous water resources, clustered among the Great Lakes.
But there have been times, in the last several years, when it seems like we surrounded not just by water, but by a rising tide of foreclosures.
In this post, we will update you on one aspect of the foreclosure issue in Michigan: the fact that many people who experience foreclosure are not actually leaving their homes.
Michigan Public Radio reported on this last week.
The good news is that the surge in foreclosures in Michigan seems to have finally subsided somewhat. Foreclosure filings have been going down for over three years and are now at their lowest point since before the Great Recession hit in 2007.
But considerable downside from so many foreclosures remains. In particular, banks and other lenders frequently face the issue of trying to get people who have been foreclosed upon to actually move out.
Banks would of course like to move on and sell the property to new owners. But it is obviously hard to sell a house to new owners when someone is already living there - namely the former owners.
To be sure, this is a problem nationwide. But Michigan certainly has its share. Indeed, the real-estate data firm Realty Trac estimates that 40 percent of the foreclosed homes in Michigan have former owners who are staying on.
Michigan's peninsulas remain pleasant. But the options in the wake of foreclosure often are not.
Source: Michigan Radio, "Home foreclosures falling in Michigan, but many are not leaving their former homes," Steve Carmody, April 10, 2014