Foreclosures affect all of us directly and indirectly. The impact of a foreclosure goes well beyond the individual borrower and lender.  Foreclosures also affect neighbors, local business, and municipalities.

We all understand the monetary costs to foreclosure  but how about the  social costs to foreclosure?

Who hasn’t driven down a street and noticed a real estate sign posted on a vacant home and wonder “What happened to the people who lived in that house?”

As more homeowners are faced with foreclosure we need to come up with more inovative programs to deal with the problem. We need better foreclosure prevention programs, we need neighbors and municipalites working together to monitor any dangerous or criminal behavior associated with foreclosures and vacant building.

We need better communication with lenders, local governments, neighbors, and homeowners. We need better accountability where lenders and municipalities work together to share the costs related with foreclosure and then ways  to recover those costs.

While the number of foreclosures present challenges I am confident that these challenges will present opportunites for people to work together to solve the problem we are all faced with when it comes to foreclosures.

Its time we stop saying ” There goes the neighborhood”