Who Are the Foreclosed? A Statistical Portrait of America in Crisis

Abstract

Data from the National Suburban Survey from September 2010 permit the first statistical portrait of Americans displaced by the mortgage foreclosure crisis. The average person who has experienced home mortgage foreclosure since September 2007 resembles the average American but is somewhat likely to be younger, Latino, and a parent. The foreclosed are also more likely to report various other measures of financial distress, including recent job loss. The experience of foreclosure is associated with more problems in the neighborhoods where respondents currently reside, including such problems as crime, unemployment, and a lack of affordable housing. Respondents who have not personally lost a home, but who know the foreclosed, are also experiencing more economic distress and more neighborhood problems than those who have not. These descriptive findings suggest the human costs of the foreclosure crisis and the limits of informal social safety nets for addressing those costs.