New York City is sliding deeper into the black hole of the housing recession, with the number of foreclosures surging as much as 69 percent this fall in some neighborhoods.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said thousands of families here could wind up losing their homes by Christmas and become too deeply in debt to ever buy another home.
Schumer said the latest data showed that Queens is suffering the highest foreclosure rate in the city, according to court actions filed in the city’s courts to strip homes from delinquent mortgage payers.
Queens foreclosures in the third quarter jumped 69 percent from a year ago. The borough also has the most properties in foreclosure, at 2,790 homes and condos, followed by Brooklyn with 2,498 properties being prepared for auction.
The lowest foreclosure rate is in Manhattan, where 402 homes and apartments are in foreclosure, a 14 percent jump from a year earlier, but up 58 percent from the second quarter.
“With every passing month, this crisis spreads unabated, leaving more and more New Yorkers in danger of losing their homes,” said Schumer.
“We are staring straight into the barrel of the biggest foreclosure crisis ever.”
Brooklyn’s foreclosure rate in the third quarter climbed 31 percent from last year, and rose 26 percent from the prior quarter.
Foreclosures in The Bronx jumped 43 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, and were 19 percent higher than in the second quarter. A total 1,011 Bronx properties are earmarked for possible auction.
In Staten Island, the foreclosure rate in the third quarter fell 12 percent from a year earlier, with 613 in foreclosure.
Schumer’s office said Nassau and Suffolk also saw a drop in foreclosures in the third quarter, down 30 percent to 1,241 homes, and down 10 percent to 1,080 homes, respectively.