“….Although sales have picked up a bit in the last few weeks, banks and other lenders remain overwhelmed by the wave of foreclosures. In Atlanta, lenders are repossessing eight homes for each distressed home they sell, according to March data from RealtyTrac. In Minneapolis, they are bringing in at least six foreclosed homes for each they sell, and in once-hot markets like Chicago and Miami, the ratio still hovers close to two to one.

Before the housing implosion, the inflow and outflow figures were typically one-to-one.

The reasons for the backlog include inadequate staffs and delays imposed by the lenders because of investigations into foreclosure practices. The pileup could lead to $40 billion in additional losses for banks and other lenders as they sell houses at steep discounts over the next two years, according to Trepp, a real estate research firm.”

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It’s prime time for the world to re-evaluate the benefits of capitalism

“The loss is most certainly of the borrower and not of the lender. The lender is part of a very powerful system of exploitation, which guarantees, after allowance for inflation and loan loss that the lender ends up with more money in his pocket …

…Bankruptcies and liquidations begin to increase. Trade and commerce enters into the doldrums. The underlying unemployment rate begins to creep up. Real estate businesses start to collapse. The resultant overall frustration in every area aids and abets homelessness, deprivation, fraud and crime. If this happens, it should not surprise anyone, least of all the stout champions of capitalism.”

Hadhrat Mirza Tahir Ahmad:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/IslamsResponseToContemporaryIssues.pdf#page=206