Kaine Proposed Foreclosure Taskforce

Virginia Foreclosure & Real Estate News

By Jay Warren

It's spreading across the country: skyrocketing foreclosures. A quick scroll through the website Foreclosure.com and you'll see just how many people have lost their homes in the Roanoke Valley alone. Statewide foreclosures are up 50%.

Governor Tim Kaine offering a sobering prediction, “There's a significant risk that the foreclosure rate will continue to climb leaving even more Virginians facing foreclosure.”

The reason: sub-prime loans. These are loans with adjustable rates, exotic loans, loans that more likely go to first time home buyers or people with credit problems. They were the rage for the past decade.

In fact, here's how widespread these loans are. The Governor says they accounted for 28% of new loans in 2005 and 30% last year. Some of the borrowers most as risk include minorities. 47% of these loans went to African Americans and 39% to Hispanics.

Back to the list and you'll see those loans are now causing major problems. Governor Kaine suggesting it's time “to do what it can to get ahead of this problem.”

He got applause for that line at an annual housing conference at the Hotel Roanoke Thursday. The group appeared to buy into Kaine’s solution. He proposed a Foreclosure Taskforce that will educate homeowners, get them to credit counseling before there's a problem, and come up with new ideas to help.

Governor Kaine summed it up in one sentence.

“We don't want people to lose their homes.”

For more Virginia foreclosure news and related articles please visit the Virginia Foreclosures home page.

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