Fannie Mae write-offs tops in Michigan, Ohio

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, I heard from several real estate professionals who told me that the country’s robust housing market was the only thing keeping the U.S. economy from tanking. They were right.

That, of course, has changed. Today, the housing market is struggling. You can see the housing industry’s troubles across the country: high foreclosure rates, stagnant housing prices, homes sitting on the market for more than a year. But in certain states, these troubles are magnified.

Take Michigan and Ohio. These two Midwest states have lost loads of manufacturing jobs. They’ve also seen little to no population growth. It’s little surprise, then, that the Associated Press yesterday reported that Michigan and Ohio rank first and second respectively when it comes to mortgage loans that giant mortgage finance company Fannie Mae has written off.

Fannie Mae, which the Associated Press reports funds one of every five home loans in the United States, has written off $185 million of mortgage loans made to homeowners in Michigan and $101 million to those in Ohio. This means that Fannie Mae has decided that it has no chance of recovering any payment on these loans.

I live in the Midwest, and I know homeowners who call Michigan home. You can see the poverty as you drive through Southwest Michigan. The jobs just aren’t here anymore. That’s not the fault of the housing industry. It’s just realty.

The Fannie Mae numbers, then, didn’t surprise me. They did sadden me, though. They also offer more evidence, if any was needed, that the housing industry can’t be expected to carry any state’s economy any longer, much less an entire country’s. How much has changed in six years.