0.7-million Pinoys in US belong to housing rescue plan tier
by ISAGANI DE LA PAZ
www.ofwjournalism.net
QUEZON CITY, Philippines—MORE than 0.7 million Filipinos belong to the tier that the United States government plans to rescue from a housing crisis, recent US census data bare.
The 2007 American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau cited that 45.6 percent of an estimated 1.7 million Philippine-born US residents cite 30 percent or more of their monthly income goes to cost of ownership of a house, or mortgage.
The US Census Bureau said the ACS provides the latest detailed look at the nation's rapidly changing and diverse population with the release of new population profiles by race, Hispanic origin, ancestry and age. These profiles were produced using the 2000 decennial census. The Census Bureau said it uses the term foreign-born to refer to anyone who is not a US citizen at birth.
“This includes naturalized US citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees), and persons illegally present in the US,” the Census Bureau said.
It added however that questions “about legal (migrant) status of respondents in any of its survey and census programs” are not asked.
“We expect that unauthorized migrants were included among people who indicated that the United States was their usual place of residence on the survey date.”
For Philippine-born US residents, the median selected monthly owner costs with a mortgage was pegged at $2,344. This is higher by nearly a thousand to the median $1,464 for the estimated total 301 million people in the US.
The median selected monthly owner costs without a mortgage for Philippine-born US residents included in the ACS was also higher at $475 from the US-wide median of $407.
The ACS report cited the Philippines community as the third-highest number of foreign-born living in the US in 2007.
Of the total estimated 38.1 million foreign-born living in the US, 11.7 million are from Mexico while 1.9 million from China. India-born people living in the US is the fourth largest at 1.5 million.
Based on the ACS, some 405,017 Philippines-born residents of the US own their own houses, of the total 587,052 housing units recorded for this population segment.
In his speech February at Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona, President Barack Obama announced a Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan that aims to require participating lenders to reduce mortgage payments “to no more than 31 percent of a borrower's income.”
“This will enable as many as three to four million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure,” President Obama said (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-mortgage-crisis/).
While the ACS didn’t reveal if Filipinos shelling out more than 30 percent of their income to mortgage are facing foreclosure, its data reveal nearly three-quarters of a million of Filipinos are paying above their earning.
Still, anecdotal data of Filipinos smack in the center of the housing crisis in the US have been reported by news agencies.
On the other hand, many Filipinos were recorded by ACS (53.5 percent or 925,412.544) to have been spending less than 30 percent of their income for cost of owning a house in the past 12 months.
ACS data cited that the median household income in the 12 months up to January this year of Philippine-born US residents at $78,050, higher than the US-wide $50,740 household income.
ACS data reveals there are 587,052 households for these residents, with 81.2 percent categorized as family households. The owner-occupied housing units are higher at 69 percent than renter-occupied units for a total 587,052 occupied housing units.
The family median income was listed as $83,254, again higher than the $61,173 median family income of a total 75.12 million families in the US.
The per capita income of Philippine-born individuals was estimated at $34,167 each two years ago.
Things are different now as the crisis that started in the sub-prime mortgage market has eroded the US financial base.
The World Bank has described this crisis as “the epicenter of the financial turbulence in the US.”
There is “now widespread recognition that unless the decline in housing prices and the accompanying quality of credit are arrested, nonperforming loans in US banks could rise to levels last seen during the banking crisis in Sweden in 1991 (13 percent of assets) or Japan during the 1990s (35 percent of assets), with much larger fiscal deficits and government borrowing than anticipated at present.”
The WB said the American federal program that “will share with lenders the cost of modifying mortgages for people facing hardship (either delinquent at their payments or at risk of falling behind schedule) by reducing the mortgage payment (to 38 percent of the borrower’s income or less) and cut the annual interest rate to as low as 2 percent.”
The US is now implementing a $275-billion rescue package for the housing sector.
Of the total, $75 billion is provided under the TARP and the rest represents new funds, the World Bank report released April said.
Still, the bank said these “efforts come against a grim background.”
“US housing prices have fallen 27 percent from their peak in July 2006, reducing home values and housing wealth by about $3.5 trillion.” OFW Journalism Consortium
www.ofwjournalism.net
QUEZON CITY, Philippines—MORE than 0.7 million Filipinos belong to the tier that the United States government plans to rescue from a housing crisis, recent US census data bare.
The 2007 American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau cited that 45.6 percent of an estimated 1.7 million Philippine-born US residents cite 30 percent or more of their monthly income goes to cost of ownership of a house, or mortgage.
The US Census Bureau said the ACS provides the latest detailed look at the nation's rapidly changing and diverse population with the release of new population profiles by race, Hispanic origin, ancestry and age. These profiles were produced using the 2000 decennial census. The Census Bureau said it uses the term foreign-born to refer to anyone who is not a US citizen at birth.
“This includes naturalized US citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents (immigrants), temporary migrants (such as students), humanitarian migrants (such as refugees), and persons illegally present in the US,” the Census Bureau said.
It added however that questions “about legal (migrant) status of respondents in any of its survey and census programs” are not asked.
“We expect that unauthorized migrants were included among people who indicated that the United States was their usual place of residence on the survey date.”
For Philippine-born US residents, the median selected monthly owner costs with a mortgage was pegged at $2,344. This is higher by nearly a thousand to the median $1,464 for the estimated total 301 million people in the US.
The median selected monthly owner costs without a mortgage for Philippine-born US residents included in the ACS was also higher at $475 from the US-wide median of $407.
The ACS report cited the Philippines community as the third-highest number of foreign-born living in the US in 2007.
Of the total estimated 38.1 million foreign-born living in the US, 11.7 million are from Mexico while 1.9 million from China. India-born people living in the US is the fourth largest at 1.5 million.
Based on the ACS, some 405,017 Philippines-born residents of the US own their own houses, of the total 587,052 housing units recorded for this population segment.
In his speech February at Dobson High School in Mesa, Arizona, President Barack Obama announced a Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan that aims to require participating lenders to reduce mortgage payments “to no more than 31 percent of a borrower's income.”
“This will enable as many as three to four million homeowners to modify the terms of their mortgages to avoid foreclosure,” President Obama said (see http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-the-mortgage-crisis/).
While the ACS didn’t reveal if Filipinos shelling out more than 30 percent of their income to mortgage are facing foreclosure, its data reveal nearly three-quarters of a million of Filipinos are paying above their earning.
Still, anecdotal data of Filipinos smack in the center of the housing crisis in the US have been reported by news agencies.
On the other hand, many Filipinos were recorded by ACS (53.5 percent or 925,412.544) to have been spending less than 30 percent of their income for cost of owning a house in the past 12 months.
ACS data cited that the median household income in the 12 months up to January this year of Philippine-born US residents at $78,050, higher than the US-wide $50,740 household income.
ACS data reveals there are 587,052 households for these residents, with 81.2 percent categorized as family households. The owner-occupied housing units are higher at 69 percent than renter-occupied units for a total 587,052 occupied housing units.
The family median income was listed as $83,254, again higher than the $61,173 median family income of a total 75.12 million families in the US.
The per capita income of Philippine-born individuals was estimated at $34,167 each two years ago.
Things are different now as the crisis that started in the sub-prime mortgage market has eroded the US financial base.
The World Bank has described this crisis as “the epicenter of the financial turbulence in the US.”
There is “now widespread recognition that unless the decline in housing prices and the accompanying quality of credit are arrested, nonperforming loans in US banks could rise to levels last seen during the banking crisis in Sweden in 1991 (13 percent of assets) or Japan during the 1990s (35 percent of assets), with much larger fiscal deficits and government borrowing than anticipated at present.”
The WB said the American federal program that “will share with lenders the cost of modifying mortgages for people facing hardship (either delinquent at their payments or at risk of falling behind schedule) by reducing the mortgage payment (to 38 percent of the borrower’s income or less) and cut the annual interest rate to as low as 2 percent.”
The US is now implementing a $275-billion rescue package for the housing sector.
Of the total, $75 billion is provided under the TARP and the rest represents new funds, the World Bank report released April said.
Still, the bank said these “efforts come against a grim background.”
“US housing prices have fallen 27 percent from their peak in July 2006, reducing home values and housing wealth by about $3.5 trillion.” OFW Journalism Consortium
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