1) As auto companies slash jobs in Detroit, foreclosures have skyrocketed to record levels, with Wayne County having the most foreclosed properties in the US in the second quarter. 2) Many former autoworkers who lost their high-paying manufacturing jobs have been unable to keep up with mortgage payments, especially as the housing market decline has prevented them from selling their homes for what they owe. 3) At a foreclosure auction of 250 homes in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, a run-down 3-bedroom house sold for just $1,500, reflecting the flood of foreclosed properties overwhelming the region's housing market in the wake of mass layoffs in the auto industry

1. Michigan Workers, Pushed Out of Auto Jobs, Lose Houses, Too
By Jeff Bennett
Oct. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Julie Taylor fights to hold back the tears when
she talks about the day in March that she lost her home.
``There was just no other choice,'' the 39-year-old Detroit woman said.
``My husband, Ken, lost his auto job, we couldn't keep up with the
house payments, and before we knew it, we were forced to let the
bank foreclose.''
That sequence of events is becoming increasingly common in Detroit,
epicenter of the U.S. auto industry. As slumping carmakers and their
suppliers slash tens of thousands of jobs, foreclosures in the area are at
an all-time high. Families like the Taylors can't tap their home equity to
keep afloat because the workforce cuts are also dragging down
property values.
Wayne County, home of Detroit and 35 surrounding municipalities, had
the most foreclosed properties in the U.S. in the second quarter,
according to Foreclosure.com of Boca Raton, Florida. Statewide, the
number of homes in some stage of foreclosure tripled in September
from a year earlier, a report by RealtyTrac of Irvine, California, shows.
``It is hard to find someone as hurt as Michigan is,'' said Michigan native
Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial Inc. in Chicago. ``I
am very saddened by what is happening there. It is a tough issue, and
there are no easy answers.''

2. Wayne County had 2,081 foreclosed properties listed in the second
quarter, Foreclosure.com reported. The next-highest number, in
Chicago's Cook County, was 1,124.
$1,500 Home
The foreclosures are flooding banks and auction houses. More than 600
people crammed into a hotel conference room in the Detroit suburb of
Dearborn, Michigan, this month to bid on repossessed properties.
Dearborn was part of a five-city tour by auctioning firm Hudson &
Marshall to sell 250 foreclosed homes in Michigan.
It was the most properties the Dallas firm has auctioned at one time in
Michigan in the past seven years, said David Webb, a co-owner. He said
he expects to break that record next year.
``In the Detroit area especially, the auto industry is driving the
foreclosures up,'' Webb said.
At the Dearborn auction, a 1,300-square-foot (120-square- meter),
three-bedroom house, in poor condition and an undesirable location,
sold for $1,500. A five-bedroom residence was sold for $350,000.
Detroit-area realtor Kent Colpaert, who deals in foreclosed properties
and sold some at the auction, said many homeowners aren't able to
fetch a high enough price to cover their loans, after taking out
mortgages in the past three years with little or no money down.

3. Property Glut
``People can't sell their house for top dollar because of the glut in the
market,'' Colpaert said. ``They have to price it more competitively than
they did four or five years ago.''
Colpaert said he has about 375 listings, 10 times his normal load. In four
years, his company has grown to 15 employees from one.
Many homeowners' job losses stem from the declining market share of
Michigan's resident automakers. Detroit-based General Motors Corp.
and Dearborn-based Ford Motor Co. are slashing payrolls to reduce
costs as they lose sales to Asian makers including Toyota Motor Corp.
and Honda Motor Co. Ford, which gave Detroit its Motor City heritage,
laid off more than 4,000 salaried workers in the past year and will drop
10,000 more by April. The second-largest U.S. automaker also expects
to eliminate 30,000 hourly jobs by 2008. GM, the world's largest
automaker, plans to cut 30,000 positions in that time frame.
Cuts at Delphi
Wayne County will lose 5,900 jobs in auto parts and 2,600 in vehicle
assembly this year, according to a report by University of Michigan
economists in April. Among parts makers, Delphi Corp., based one
county north in Troy, will eliminate 20,100 union jobs at the end of this
year and close five plants in Michigan.

4. Michigan's job losses are a central issue in the governor's race, in which
polls show Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm leading Republican
challenger Dick DeVos. About one in seven jobs in the state is tied to
the auto industry, said Ron Thompson, an economist at Global Insight
in Lexington, Massachusetts.
Most of those who find new employment are taking pay cuts. Many
auto workers without college degrees make more than $100,000 a year
with overtime.
``These are upper-middle-income people,'' said Swonk, the Mesirow
Financial economist. ``You can imagine the shift they are going through,
coming from having enough to own a second home and even a boat.''
Julie Taylor said her husband, who used to assemble door- latch
components, was among those laid off by parts makers. She declined to
name his former employer because she still hopes he'll be called back
to work.
Since losing his job in June 2005, Ken Taylor has begun working in
construction. The couple and their 3-year-old son moved into a one-
bedroom apartment in the suburb of Southfield, Michigan.
``Once you lose it,'' Julie Taylor said, ``you realize just how important a
home is in your life.''