Bloomberg just cracked open the reality of the foreclosure crisis on Long Island. It’s a grim tale of surging foreclosure, sky high mortgage delinquency rates, and outrageous property taxes spilling out from behind closed doors onto the streets…
It’s not just leaking out anymore local law enforcement is speeding up the process of dragging family’s belongings into the streets where it is raided by looters and neighbors hide behind curtains fearing they are next.
While high end home flipping may be all the rage in the Hamptons where properties are flying off the shelf for tens of millions of dollars there is another side of Long Island which isn’t doing quite as well.
Mortgage lenders are speeding up foreclosures. On Long Island initial foreclosure notices and auctions rose 25% through October 2013 according to RealtyTrac. 10% of the Island’s mortgages are currently considered “seriously delinquent” according to CoreLogic. That’s on top of all the recent bank repossessions, foreclosures in the pipeline and while foreclosures are dropping 50 to 60% elsewhere. Effectively this places those in Suffolk and Nassau County in the pit of its own crisis, with hard times to come for many that are struggling to keep up with housing payments.
Including taxes, attorney fees and back interest some local homeowners owe more than five times what they purchased their properties for. A big part of this, and a large part of the struggle for those on the verge of delinquency or foreclosure is the broken property tax system and sky high taxation rates.
Sadly many aren’t aware that they could be paying a lot less, and be dodging this bullet. It’s no secret that many, if not the majority of property tax bills in New York are inaccurate and property owners are being grossly over-billed. This disparity continues to increase as neighboring homes are peddled at huge discounts at auctions and to investors.
Almost ironically, if it wasn’t so heartbreaking those in financial trouble and those buying homes in Nassau and Suffolk County today could be eligible to have their property tax bills dramatically reduced if they leveraged the help of local property tax adjusters. How long will you keep overpaying?