Subprime landscapes

Since many of our students aren't on the verge of purchasing a home, i don't think they have followed the rapid deceleration of the housing markets, but they need to. There is a steady drumbeat of news items detailing way that the subrprime mortgage crisis is impacting families, investors and the economy. But what is emerging is also a trickle of details about how this could impact the our landscapes.

The Philadelphia Inquirer just published a map of the Philly area (including South Jersey) showing which neighborhoods most effected by the subprime collapse. No one will be surprised to learn that it directly correlates with lower income areas.

Newsweek has published a significant piece looking at some initial impacts of the subprime mortgage collapse and some contributing factors. They talk about how fast properties were selling and how everyone seemed to be jumping into the game:

The demand for mortgage brokers in Las Vegas was so strong that "every stripper, waiter and bartender on the Strip had a broker's license," says Boyd Nyborg, a former mortgage broker who now tends bar at the Tao Las Vegas.

The latest Census report found that more than 1/6 of all NJ homeowners were spending more 50% of their income on housing. Clearly, housing costs are causing people to be overextended in ways that leave them exposed to countless other problems.

The LA LAnd blog from the LA Times seems to only be talking about the bubble burst and the implications for LA area real estate. (as opposed to talking about celebrity homes and how environmental regulations are impacting new development)

And The Ground Floor, a blog from the Urban Land Institute, is doing a great job of tracking the details and looking for the implications.


It all leaves me wondering what the new post-subprime landscapes will look like?