The hi-tech crisis has had an effect on the housing market
as well. Real estate was already in a slump before the
crisis hit, and any financial difficulties within a certain
sector make the situation more acute.
According to a report in Yediot Acharonot, during the
first two months of the fiscal year a 40 percent increase
was posted in the number of requests by mortgage banks to
foreclose apartments belonging to borrowers who were unable
to make their mortgage payments.
The banks filed requests to foreclose apartments of 1,200
families who failed to make their mortgage payments. The
newspaper revealed that hi-tech professionals who had
purchased prestigious apartments and have faced financial
difficulties in recent months are also included among those
who have been unable to pay back their mortgage loans.
Bank Tefachot Managing Director Chaim Freilichman told
Yediot Acharonot that difficulties in repaying
mortgage loans are usually typical of peripheral areas of
the country where unemployment rates have been relatively
high for a prolonged period. He says the banks have provided
particularly high percentage financing in these areas over
recent years. But now, apartment buyers in prestigious
central areas who were earning high salaries at the time
they took the mortgage loan have encountered difficulties.
"With the wave of layoffs in high tech, the uncertainty and
the pay reductions, there have been problems making monthly
payments in this price range," says Freilichman.
