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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Foreclosures Reach All-Time High
FOXBusiness
As if Americans needed a further sign the economy is slacking, foreclosures for April hit and all-time high, rising 65% from a year ago, and 4% from March. The survey, conducted by RealtyTrack, included defaults, auction sale notices, and bank repossessions.
There were 243,353 foreclosure filings filed last month, the highest number on record with RealtyTrack.
Areas in states including Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida, Texas and Colorado are especially troubled, according to the survey.
Nevada holds the country’s highest state foreclosure rate, at 3.6 times the national average. An estimated one in every 146 Nevada homes is in foreclosure, according to RealtyTrack.
California ranked second with one in 204 households filing for foreclosure. Vallejo, California in particular had the country’s sixth-highest rate of foreclosures.
Foreclosure activity is expected to “remain high and even increase” in 2008, according to RealtyTrack Chief Executive James Saccacio.
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Sure, we know some of you are saying the term "marriage penalty" is redundant. In fact, of all the costs associated with getting married (have you seen the cost of a wedding cake lately?), the marriage penalty can be the worst.
Here's how it works: Mr. and Mrs. Right walk down the aisle in wedded bliss and suddenly they¿re a two-income household. If both make roughly the same amount of money, they can be pushed into a higher tax bracket. That's bad, since the higher the bracket, the higher the tax. So, if both were single, they'd end up writing two smaller checks to the tax man that, if combined, would add up to less than the giant check they write in a state of wedded bliss.
Is that fair? We're not touching that, but there is a flip side that few people talk about. The marriage penalty only kicks in if both members of the couple make close to the same amount of money. If there's a big disparity in pay, there's actually a tax advantage. Call it the marriage bonus.
And, it¿s important to remember that there are other financial benefits, such as lower life-insurance rates or health care premiums, that can make up for the extra tax couples pay. So don't let Uncle Sam stop you from saying, "I do."
