She photographs the effects of foreclosure in the Inland Empire of Southern California, but also in Iceland and in Ireland, where an emptied-out estate of newly built thatched cottages looks like a hobbit community after the plague has struck.
Across the country, homelessness continues to skyrocket, as families and individuals lose their homes to the combined effects of foreclosure and unemployment.
Actually, it protects entire neighborhoods and local economies from the effects of foreclosures by preventing a greater buildup of unsold homes and a further drop in prices.
During the housing bust, while the effects of foreclosures and a crushing recession tore through real estate markets in states like Florida, California and Nevada, the Denver metro seemed insulated from economic harm.
The agency's inspector general is auditing the regulator's oversight and conservatorship efforts to determine whether the agency and the mortgage companies manage foreclosed homes "to maximize financial recoveries and minimize the negative effects of foreclosures on affected communities," the report says.
In addition to helping families, this would help reduce the depressing effect of foreclosures on house prices.
But in many Long Island towns, as well as other locations like Orange, N.J., New Haven, Yonkers and Bedford-Stuyvesant in New York City, homeowners and local groups are also battling the wider effect of foreclosures — the disarray and devaluation of their neighborhoods.
The case of Sgt. James B. Hurley, a disabled veteran whose home outside Hartford, Mich., was sold two months before he returned from Iraq, dragged through the courts for years, highlighting the devastating effect of foreclosures.
Cities where home prices that don't fluctuate wildly are particularly well-positioned to ride out this recession, because they were spared the domino effect of foreclosures, lost jobs and lost productivity.
Mr. Romney also sought to tap into the frustration of many in the crowd who have suffered the immediate effects of the foreclosure crisis.
As part of the settlement, the banks agreed to pay the states $2.5 billion, money intended to help homeowners and mitigate the effects of the foreclosure surge.
