On the recordFebruary 3, 2010
The economic pain in the Midwestern region of our country is not subsiding in any meaningful way. Approximately 600,000, over half a million Americans, are out of work in just our State alone and over 20 million Americans across our country. In our district, one county, Ottawa County, is suffering from an unemployment rate that exceeds 17 percent, and just yesterday another one of its largest employers, Silgan, announced it would close its plant. There have been approximately 27,000 bankruptcies in just one county in my district. Bankruptcy is a desperate act, an act taken only when you see no other alternative. Today's New York Times talks about desperate measures that homeowners across our country are now taking. The front page article describes the growing number of Americans who are 'under water' on their mortgages and the steps they are taking to cope with that situation. Being under water means you owe more on the house than it's worth. More and more homeowners who are under water are taking the desperate act of walking away from their homes, even in the winter. When the real estate market started sinking in the middle of 2006, almost no Americans were under water on their mortgages. Now 3 years later, an estimated 4.5 million homeowners have reached what The Times calls 'the critical threshold' where the home's value had fallen below 75 percent of the mortgage balance.
