Posted on 11/09/2003 1:04:24 PM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Wichita — Home foreclosures in aviation-dependent Wichita have soared in the past two years as more families struggle to make ends meet in this hard-hit Midwest manufacturing community.
On average, between 30 and 40 Wichita families each week are losing their homes at sheriff's auctions in the Sedgwick County Courthouse.
Extended unemployment benefits and family savings have run out for thousands of laid-off aircraft workers and others who still are having a hard time finding jobs two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks triggered massive layoffs in Wichita's four aircraft manufacturing plants.
The foreclosures come after years of easy mortgage money driven by low interest rates and increased competition. Lenders were compelled to offer low or no down payments, lower income qualifications and second mortgages -- often at more than home value.
As of Oct. 1, Sedgwick County had recorded 1,231 foreclosures of homes and businesses -- far outpacing all of last year and twice the number of foreclosures in 2000, according to figures compiled by Security Title in Wichita. Most of those were home foreclosures, the company said.
The recession still has a tight grip on this city, which is home to plants for The Boeing Co., Cessna Aircraft, Bombardier Aerospace and Raytheon Aircraft. The companies have cut more than 14,000 jobs since aircraft sales went soft in 2001.
Aircraft workers hit
Tim Schweitzer, 26, was laid off from his job as a sheet-metal worker at Boeing in December 2001 after five years with the company. His wife, Kristie, 25, lost her job as a stockroom clerk at Cessna in March 2003. Both were second-generation aircraft workers.
For months, the Schweitzers scrambled to make their $687 monthly mortgage payment, at times getting behind and then catching up again when a tax refund check or job severance money came in.
The Wichita couple had saved money for a year before scraping together enough in 2000 to buy their first house, a $70,000 brick home with a yard that was in their price range.
"We wanted to have something of our own when we got married," she said. "We were both making pretty good money."
They got to live in the house for three years.
In May, the couple and their two daughters -- Kinsey, 5, and Haylie, 2 -- moved to a rented house owned by Tim Schweitzer's father. They signed their house's deed over to the mortgage company.
"There was no way we would be able to sell the house for what we owe on it," Tim Schweitzer said.
State higher than average
In Kansas, 1.15 percent of mortgage loans were in foreclosure proceedings as of June 30, according to figures compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association of America in Washington, D.C. In addition, more than 4 percent of mortgage loans in Kansas were delinquent.
Those figures are based on 254,376 loans, representing the majority of mortgage lenders in the state tracked by MBA economists.
The state's foreclosure rate was slightly higher than the national rate of 1.12 percent in the second quarter of this year. The national delinquency rate on mortgage loans in the quarter was 4.48 percent.
Jobs are key
"Obviously, the key thing in delinquency and foreclosure is jobs," said Jay Brinkmann, vice president for MBA's Department of Research and Economics. "It takes a paycheck, sometimes two paychecks, to support a house."
In Wichita, foreclosures bottomed out in December 1993. Since then, there has been a slow but steady increase, spiking in 2001 and 2002 amid the aircraft industry layoffs.
In 2000, Sedgwick County recorded 620 foreclosures. By 2001, that figure rose to 901, and in 2002, it climbed to 1,049. By September of this year, the number of foreclosures already had reached 1,231.
"Filings have picked up and become more volatile since the recession, but the increase started long before then," said Stanley Longhofer, director for Wichita State University's Center for Real Estate.
Hard to catch up
During the good years, more people took out second and third mortgages. Bigger mortgages were easier to come by as income qualifications were lowered.
All of that, coupled with missed payments, back interest, late fees, attorney fees and other costs, can make it difficult for homeowners to catch up once they get behind on house payments, he said.
As for the Schweitzers, both have gone back to school -- he to study computer science, she to study cosmetology -- while they hope their unemployment benefits hold out. His benefits run out next month, just as he completes his final semester.
They dream of owning a home again.
"We are trying to use this as an opportunity," Kristie Schweitzer said. "We are trying to decide the best way to go so we don't get ourselves in a position where we get laid off and lose our home again."
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For the 9 months of 2004 compared with 2003 we have:
Departures down 7.5%
Enplanements down 3.2%
Revenue passenger miles down 2.0%, and
Available seat miles down 4.0%.
Don't look for commercial aviation to bounce back anytime soon. It is still on the decline.
Thank you Free Traitors
1. H1B's are NOT immigrants ... they are guest workers and have NO business taking the jobs of Americans on American soil. They have NOT nor have their ancestors contributed to this country and therefore have NOT earned the right to be here.
2. Companies bring them here to work for a few years at ultra cheap wages. The companies know they can NOT vie for better wages at another company nor can they complain about the 100 hour weeks the companies require them to work on threat of revocation of their sponsership. This is nothing short of indentured servitude.
3. This is NOT a sign of demand for labor when one worker (American) is replaced by a foreign guest worker. That is FREE TRAITOR propaganda.
The electronics industry has EVER been unionized nor effected by a union. So your union demon is not an issue here
Actually ... I do too. BUT in the same breath ... I blame those who are now in power for not stopping it.
I don't have as much problem with outsourcing .. BUT IMO any company who created their business on American shores whose citizens provided the opportunity to create that business and provided the safety of their military to protect that company then moves their business off-shore to make an easy buck and in the process screws the same American worker who made their existance possible ... are TRAITORS to me.
BUT worse is the practice of bringing foreigners on OUR soil to take our jobs ... that ... to me is dispicable ... and quite frankly ... anyone who would condone, support or engage in this practice is a TRAITOR of the worst kind
Joe ... (I'm sure that's not your real name) ... That's NOT whats happening with the H1B's. These foreigners are taking the jobs of highly skilled and highly trained American engineers and other high tech professionals. These jobs are are VERY much wanted and are easily ... and in most cases ... better performed by AMERICANS on our own soil
I used to think I could never do it out of pure shame but it dosen't see to bother those high paid CEO's any.
I am mostly debt free except my house loan which is small but some days I wonder if I shouldn't cash one of those $70,000 home equity loan checks I get offered and max out all the plastic and then tell them to stuff it.
There is no debtors prison in the USA, what can they do to me. Send me to Iraq ?
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