Shelby County Foreclosures for Sale

As one of the highest earning counties in the United States, one would hope that Shelby County was not too badly affected by the foreclosure crisis sweeping the nation, but unfortunately Shelby County is not totally unaffected. The unemployment rate has not quite gone up in line with the rest of the State, which in 2007 was sat at a lowly 3.6 percent but has now risen to 4.9 percent and is expected to continue to rise to around 5.3 percent by March 2009. Shelby County by contrast has managed to maintain a rate of 3.4 percent throughout the period.

Unemployment means people being unable to meet repayments on their mortgages, especially when those mortgages were part of the sub-prime scam that hit the headlines in the summer of 2007. Many homeowners have found their repayments rising by as much as 30 or 40% in a given month, which is totally out of their scope. Combine being over stretched on house borrowing with the probability that ordinary people have purchased their car on credit then the situation is clear how suddenly repossessions can become a part of the neighbourhood scene.

The limited effects of the recession in the county has not been lost on many people in more badly affected areas and this has prompted a large scale immigration flow of Hispanic people to Shelby County. The county already has an 8% Hispanic population, and many people in the county are concerned that new immigrants, albeit predominantly legal, may undermine the employment market by offering cheaper labour. If the employment market is flooded then the unemployment figures may increase as a result, but this would be hidden as a percentage figure given the increase in number of people seeping into the county.

RealtyTrac, a California based company that has been tracking national trends in foreclosures since the start of the crisis in the summer of 2007, lists 703 properties across Shelby County as being at some stage of the foreclosure process, with 414 of those being bank owned. This is a figure that would simply have been unthinkable at the same time last year.

Building businesses is the focus of the counties administration, and encouraging a climate where hard working families can feel safe about spending money, particularly as the festive season approaches. If some consumer spending can be kick-started by encouragement and confidence from the top, then perhaps the future may look a little brighter. For many people though, the focus December 2008 and moving into the New Year, is just to hunker down, hold on to their jobs and keep their homes.