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WalletPop:

Filed under: Home, Insurance, Real Estate

After a 5.4 magnitude earthquake shook southern Illinois this morning, I wondered what would happen if my home were caught in a strong tremor. Like most people, my home insurance doesn’t cover such an eventuality. Ohio is in blue on the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program map of earthquake risk, so I probably won’t go shopping for coverage.

Earthquake insurance is available, though. Usually sold with a large deductible, the coverage might be a good investment for those in highly vulnerable areas. Of course, the higher the risk, the higher the premium. Californians are assured that coverage is available thanks to the creation of the California Earthquake Authority The CERA points out that there is no part of the state that is immune from earthquakes.

“For many California homeowners, their home is their biggest financial asset,” The CERA says on its Web site. “Without earthquake insurance, how do you plan to protect that asset from the costs of earthquake damage?”

But earthquakes aren’t just a California problem. The Insurance Information Institute (III) points out that since 1900 these geological events have occurred in 39 states and been felt in all 50.

“Earthquake insurance carries a deductible, generally in the form of a percentage rather than a dollar amount. Deductibles can range anywhere from 2 percent to 20 percent of the replacement value of the structure,” The III says on its Web site. “Insurers in states like Washington, Nevada and Utah, with higher than average risk of…

WalletPop:

Filed under: Real Estate, Mortgage Confidential

In a story released today by the Associated Press, RealtyTrac, an online foreclosure reporting firm, reported that year over year foreclosure rates jumped 57% when compared to March 2007. It seems foreclosures just won’t stop and it’s the fault of all those subprime and alternative mortgages that are resetting to higher rates and people simply can’t afford them. Oh really? In another slant on the very same data, CNBC reported that yes, foreclosures are still up nationally, but they actually are FALLING in other states such as Texas, New Mexico, New Jersey, Hawaii and Delaware. This little tidbit, oddly enough, was stuck in the very last paragraph of the article. But wait a minute…if all these loans that are adjusting at higher rates are causing more and more people to be foreclosed upon then why are these other states immune from the very same problem? Hmmmmm?

Could it be that it’s not the loan type that’s been the problem? After all, subprime loans have been around for twenty years and so have their hybrid brethren so why has this foreclosure “crisis” being blamed upon subprime loans and the brokers that pushed them?

I’ve suggested this for quite some time, that if it were the type of loan that were the problem then we would have seen similar foreclosure rates for the past twenty years, and we haven’t. And now we see that other states, including Texas, are showing just as dramatic decreases in foreclosure filings, all with…