Puerto Rico

The Next Detroit?

The next crisis for Puerto Rico:

 A crush of foreclosures

• Puerto Rico is headed for a housing meltdown that could rival what happened in Detroit.
• About one-third of the island's homeowners are behind on their mortgage payments to banks.
• The looming crisis means the aftereffects of the storm will be felt for years to come.

Matthew Goldstein

First came a brutal 10-year recession and financial crisis that drove businesses from this island and left 44 percent of the population impoverished. Then, in September, Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm, shredded buildings, wrecked the electrical power grid and possibly led to more than 1,000 deaths. 

Now Puerto Rico is bracing for another blow: a housing meltdown that could far surpass the worst of the foreclosure crisis that devastated Phoenix, Las Vegas, Southern California and South Florida in the past decade. If the current numbers hold, Puerto Rico is headed for a foreclosure epidemic that could rival what happened in Detroit, where abandoned homes became almost as plentiful as occupied ones. 

Puerto Rico's 35 percent foreclosure and delinquency rate is more than double the 14.4 percent national rate during the depths of the housing implosion in January 2010. And there is no prospect of the problem's solving itself or quickly."If there is no income, the people cannot make payments," said Ricardo Ramos-González, coordinator of a consumer legal aid clinic at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. "Thousands have lost their jobs, thousands of small business have closed, and thousands more have left the country. 

DYI