53% rise in new foreclosure cases on Long Island first 8 mo. of 2013 compared to same per. 2012 despite rising home values-Newsday

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9/28/13, "Rising foreclosures hurt Island as nation recovers," Newsday, Maura McDermott

"New foreclosure cases on Long Island are spiking, even as the mortgage crisis fades in the rest of the United States.

Despite rising home values that suggest a housing rebound on the Island, lenders filed 12,271 initial foreclosure cases here in the first eight months of this year, a nearly 53 percent surge compared with the same period in 2012, according to data from real estate information firm LI Profiles, based in Brightwaters.
Nationwide the number of initial filings dropped 34 percent during the same period, national data provider RealtyTrac reported....

The share of Island mortgages in distress is more than double the national average, according to national data provider Lender Processing Services, of Jacksonville, Fla. In July, 8.2 percent of all homes with mortgages in Suffolk County and 6.1 percent of homes with mortgages in Nassau County were in the foreclosure pipeline, compared with 2.8 percent of homes with mortgages nationwide, LPS reported. LPS collects data from mortgage servicers. Its definition of foreclosure includes cases that have been referred to bank attorneys but not yet filed in court, as well as those making their way through the court system.

Experts say Long Island continues to struggle with foreclosures for a complex set of reasons. They range from New York's almost three-year foreclosure process -- tied with New Jersey for the longest in the nation -- to Long Island's riskier-than-average mortgage loans before the collapse of the housing market in 2008. Another factor: the region's difficulties in bringing back high-paying jobs. Nassau's median household income was $93,214 last year, a decline of nearly 7 percent since 2008, according to census data. In Suffolk, median income has dropped nearly 5.7 percent over the same period, to $86,334."...

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