According to the Census Bureau, about 10% of the homes built after 2000 are now vacant. This is a tragedy. We have excellent housing stock that should be housing families, not sitting empty. The only way to get them filled is make their price affordable, so that regular Americans can afford them based on their income, and not exotic loan products. That is the problem. If all of these homes are discounted and released to the market at a truly affordable prices, it would undercut the value of the rest of the market. That is a primary reason why there haven’t been any major bailout plans put forth.

Unfortunately, the pain and suffering is only getting worse. The Mortgage Bankers Association numbers for the first quarter of 2008 show that mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures continue to surpass records. The number of new prime ARM foreclosures increased by 20,000 to 117,000 in the first quarter, while the number of new subprime ARM foreclosures increased by 20,000 to 195,000. At this point, prime ARM defaults are growing faster than subprime ARM defaults, demonstrating that credit-worthy homeowners are not immune to the crisis.

The rise in past-due loans is widespread. Delinquencies are up year over year in every state except Louisiana. 39% of subprime ARMs and more than 10% of prime ARMs are now at least one payment behind. It is clear that the Option ARMs, featuring low introductory rates have been devastating to consumers.