VizWorld.com

Over at the Wall Street Journal, they’ve compiled a staggering number of statistics on home loan defaults into a fantastic infographic.  The article accompanying it is a bit overwhelming in it’s complexity, but the graphic does a great job of distilling down the basic points.

A survey found that one in eight U.S. households with mortgages was in foreclosure or behind on its mortgage payments during the second quarter, putting added pressure on programs aimed at preventing foreclosures.

While foreclosure starts have slowed on the subprime loans that ignited the mortgage and banking crisis, loans extended to borrowers with good credit are deteriorating at a faster clip as falling home prices and mounting job losses weigh on more households.

via Souring Prime Loans Compound Mortgage Woes – WSJ.com.

Science economic, home, infographic, wsj

The Herald-Tribune has spent the last year investigating house sales fraud in Florida, and has spent this week publishing their discoveries.  In what is currently a 3-part series, they discuss how home prices were arbitrarily inflated by crooked real estate developers.

Unscrupulous property flippers would buy houses or condos, then drive up the price in a few days or weeks by selling it to someone they knew. Buyers used the inflated price to get bank loans for more than the property was worth, leaving money for flippers to split as profit.

They’ve reviewed nearly 19 million Florida real estate transactions to compile an impressive infographic (a piece of which is shown above) plotting flips over the state, separating the data by county, by cluster, and adjusting for population.  While most of these developers will never be prosecuted (simply too many to chase down), hopefully they’ll at least never be looked at the same way again by banks and customers.

via ‘Flip that house’ fraud cost billions, Flippers’ Toll: On Gulf Coast, half a billion in defaults, and The King of the Sarasota Flip

Science florida, home, infographic, real estate, sales