Real Estate

Foreclosures: Mayors see major hit to economy

A group representing more than 1,100 U.S. cities predicts declines in local industry and tax collections.

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By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The mortgage meltdown will take a heavy toll on home prices in 2008 with declines expected to average 7 percent across the nation and lost property value of $1.2 trillion, according to the United States Conference of Mayors.

The mayors, meeting in Detroit this week, are predicting even more substantial plunges in local markets, with California home prices expected to shrink 16 percent.

The organization has representatives from more than 1,100 cities and were meeting to address problems brought on by spikes in foreclosure rates.

"Today the foreclosure crisis has the potential to break the back of our economy, as well as the backs of millions of American families, if we don't do something soon," said USCM President Douglas Palmer, Mayor of Trenton, N.J., in a written statement.

Foreclosures in 2008 will increase by at least 1.4 million, according to the mayors.

The economic impact will be substantial.

The home building industry will suffer disproportionately, with new home construction sinking to its lowest level since 1993, the organization predicts.

And, with home equity levels in steep decline, growth in consumer spending will be curtailed - the mayors expect it to increase by just 2 percent.

Municipalities will start to feel the pinch with a decline in the property tax growth rate. Some places could even experience an outright decline in collections. The housing decline will also affect state coffers, as transfer taxes plummet along with home sales volumes.

Florida, according to the mayors, could lose $589 million loss in property tax, $148 million loss in sales tax and $99 million loss in transfer tax.

Gross domestic product, the group projects, will contract by $166 billion. The heaviest burden will fall in New York, the nation's largest metro area, where the gross metropolitan product (GMP) will go down by about $10.4 billion, according to the organization.

Los Angeles's GMP will drop by $8.3 billion and Dallas and Washington will each experience $4 billion declines.

Myrtle Beach, S.C. will suffer the largest percentage loss of GMP. The group projects a decline there of 1.7 percentage points ($243 million). Merced, Calif., is projected to lose 1.69 percentage points, or $276 million, and Madera, Calif. (a loss of 1.62% percentage points, or $145 million) will also be hard hit. To top of page



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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.