Newswire:

Awww, Now The Mortgage Crisis Is Hitting Rich Folks Too

Middle class people have been suffering under mortgage meltdown since 2006. [Wonk Room] Now it’s hitting rich folks too.

The Financial Times reports that “in a sign that falling prices and home sales gluts are no longer limited to the nation’s declining rust-belt cities or bubble markets, prices for gilt-edged properties in East Hampton and Southampton have fallen sharply.” [Financial Times]

Here are the stats:

• In 2007, “sales of vacation property fell 31 per cent across the US, against a 10 per cent drop in sales of homes bought to live in.” [Financial Times]
• The Wonk Room reports, “In some of the country’s most affluent counties, home foreclosures are well above the national average of 1/555. Loudon County, Virginia, for example, has a median family income of $98,000 and a home foreclosure rate of 1/69.”
• It’s even affecting Congress. Roll Call reports that stocks that were linked to bad mortgages “may have cost 51 Members as much as $13.2 million in stock value during the past 15 months.” [Roll Call]
• Writes Sarah Dale of the Center for American Progress, “Hopefully lawmakers, finally feeling the heat in their wallets, can get their act [together] with their most recent attempt at assisting struggling homeowners.” Find out how here: [Progress Report]

Rich folks can’t sell their summer home. Now that is a national crisis.

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