The rich are taking over from the poor in terms of home mortgage foreclosures.
About 30 percent of June foreclosures came from homes in the top third of local housing values, up from 16 percent in 2006, when the foreclosure crisis began, according to real estate research service Zillow.com.
The bottom third of housing markets now make up 35 percent of foreclosures, down from 55 percent three years ago, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Zillow report shows that foreclosures began to increase in late spring, after dropping earlier in the year. And mansions are starting to get hit worse than shacks.
Even the wealthy aren’t so eager to keep making mortgage payments when the value of their homes falls below the value of their mortgage loans.
"The slope of that curve in recent months is much sharper than it was recently," Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, told The Journal.
The housing market has been showing signs of strength in recent months, with the S&P/Case-Shiller home price index for 10 major cities, rising 3.6 percent between April and July.
But the foreclosure news for expensive homes is an ominous sign.
Robert Shiller, the Yale University professor who co-founded the index bearing his name, wrote in The New York Times that while the market has improved, utopia hasn’t arrived.
“The sudden turn could signal a new housing boom, but is more likely just a sign of a period of higher short-run price volatility.”
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