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The Mortgage Meltdown

Small cities rate high in foreclosures

Last update: May 07, 2008

Everybody knows that Minneapolis is the foreclosure capital of Hennepin County, right?

In absolute numbers, that's true. But not if you measure the foreclosure rate -- the percentage of households in foreclosure.

By that yardstick, three lightly populated communities along the Crow River in western Hennepin County are in the top tier for foreclosures. They're Greenfield and the Hennepin County portions of Rockford and Hanover. They join Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park for the county's top five cities in foreclosure rate. In fact, Greenfield and Brooklyn Park are tied for tops at 2.3 percent of households foreclosed in 2007.

"You're kidding!" Greenfield Mayor Jill Krout said when she got the news from a reporter on Wednesday. Her exurb had 20 foreclosures last year.

Minneapolis? It rates only sixth, at 1.8 percent, despite 2,895 foreclosures.

Those surprises in a recent round of data crunching from Hennepin County have to be taken with several grains of salt.

Read more...

Distressed properties dragging metro area home values down

A Realtor group's report shows the huge effect of foreclosed homes and other distressed properties on the area's median home price.

Senate passes bill to defer foreclosures, but Pawlenty and bankers oppose it

The measure, which would give some homeowners up to an extra year, drew no votes from some key DFLers.

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