Plainfield Foreclosures: Maps tell the tale

Pushpin view of SOME of Plainfield's foreclosures.

For those who think I'm just whining (see more about whining here) about Plainfield's foreclosure situation, a little news.

From the real world.

Things in New Jersey are not as bad -- on the whole -- as things in other parts of the country. But that does not mean that things are not bad in parts of New Jersey.

And with more than forty percent of Plainfield mortgages issued from 2004-2006 being subprime, Plainfield is exposed to the dangers in the mortgage meltdown, especially as these subprime mortgages with teaser introductory rates start to reset to higher levels, and many buyers find themselves unable to keep up.

The Ledger posted a foreclosure story on its business blog yesterday, which did not appear in today's online or print editions, but which you can read here. The neat thing is that it includes a link to a map of the county-by-county picture in the state. And if you click on a county in that map, you get a detailed breakdown of the foreclosures by community in that county. Are you sitting down? The numbers are for the month of May ONLY.

Foreclosures by County, May 2008.

Plainfield foreclosures, by ZIP code, for May 2008.

Note that this is a special free peek at a PAY-TO-VIEW site, but you can get an eyeful nonetheless, even with partial functionality.

Check it out.

With 239 new foreclosure items in May and a total, per the Census, of 6,508 owner-occupied homes, the raw figure for Plainfield looks like 37% are in trouble. Or am I whining? [Feedback: "'Anonymous Tom' points out 239/6508 = 3.67% -- still alarming." -- now you know the reason I'm not Secretary of the Treasury -- Dan]

While you are waiting to see if the Robinson-Briggs administration has a clue about what the impact might be, you can ponder what it means for your investment in your own home if foreclosures start peppering your neighborhood.

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• Ledger: "NJ foreclosure filings grow, but slower than nation"

-- Dan Damon

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