Suffolk Home Foreclosures Up 62%

According to a Long Island foreclosure report, new foreclosures were down in Q2 '09 (757) 20% from Q1 '09 (944), but up 9% over Q2 '08 (696).

In a good sign for Long Island real estate, the rate of new Nassau County foreclosures has diminished. Compared to Q1 '09 (626), new foreclosures in Nassau County Q2 '09 (265) went down 58%. Since Q2 2008 (393), new foreclosures declined by 33%.

In sharp contrast, foreclosures in Suffolk County reached a two-year high in Q2 2009. There were 492 new foreclosure auctions scheduled in Q2 '09. This was up 62% compared to Q2 '08 (303), and up 55% from Q1 '09 (318).

The Suffolk towns of Brookhaven (267), Islip (244), and Babylon (152) and Nassau's Town of Hempstead (649) have the greatest number of foreclosures in the first half of '09.

Click here for the full Long Island Q2 09 Foreclosure Report.

1 Million Uninsured

A new report on poverty reveals that 1,052,611 residents of Long Island under 65 have no health insurance. Yup! That's 43% of the state's 2,471,152 uninsureds. And 1 in 6 islander under 65 lacks coverage.

Here are the numbers and percentages of the uninsured by county:

• Kings County: 335,289 - 15.9%
• Nassau County: 173,349 - 15.1%
• Queens County: 345,196 - 17.6
• Suffolk County: 198,777 - 15.2%

A few questions:

• How is it that the economically challenged Western NY counties of Erie, Monroe and Niagara have lower rates of uninsureds (11.3% - 11.9%) than wealthy LI?
• How is it that Bronx County manages an uninsured rate of 11.1%?
• How is it that 68% of the largely rural Upstate counties (27 of 40) have uninsured rates greater than 15% and as high as thirty per cent in state as rich as NY?
• Furthermore, how is it that NY spends so much while managing to leave millions uninsured?

Link: 2009 New York State Poverty Report

Severe & Deeply Rooted Housing Discrimination on Long Island

The advocacy group Education Research Advocacy Support to Eliminate Racism (ERASE Racism)'s latest report, The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island (pdf), concludes that African Americans and Latinos are still treated unfairly when searching for homes in Long Island (New York).

The discrimination, the report observes, is severe and deeply rooted in the highly segregated society that is Long Island.

A primary culprit? Real estate professionals.

The report found that some Long Island real estate agents routinely practice housing discrimination, despite efforts to crack down on it, including repeatedly steering African Americans and Latinos to rundown neighborhoods.

Seventy three percent (73%) of all housing race discrimination complaints on Long Island from 2000 to 2007 were filed against real estate professionals.

The report also found that local state and federal government agencies failed to act to stem housing discrimination based on race on Long Island.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under George W. Bush failed to oversee and monitor New York’s human rights cases.

The state’s Division of Human Rights under George Pataki dismissed most housing discrimination complaints. Between 1999 and 2007, 90 percent of the race-based fair housing complaints from Long Island received a “no probable cause” finding.

And local municipalities failed to take “any significant steps towards drafting and implementing community development plans that address inequities caused by racial segregation.”

Links:
Report: Housing discrimination on LI 'routine practice'
Not so fair housing on LI
Housing Barriers Persist on Long Island: New Study Reveals Housing Discrimination on
Long Island Is Severe and Deeply Rooted - report press release
The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island

October 27th Symposium - The Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Nassau and Suffolk Counties

The Center for Social Innovation at Adelphi University, Long Island Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Long Island Immigrant Alliance, Suffolk County Office of Minority Affairs and Long Island Wins Present:

Strengthening Long Island:
The Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Nassau and Suffolk Counties
3:00 - 4:30pm
October 27, 2008

A symposium including a presentation and discussion of the results of a new study by Adelphi University Prof. Mariano Torras, which finds that in 2006, immigrants contributed $10.6 billion to the Long Island economy. Immigrants exercised $7.5 billion in buying power, helped create 82,000 new jobs, and even paid $2 billion more in taxes than they received in services.

Strengthening Long Island: The Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Nassau and Suffolk Counties assesses the positive impact of immigrant Long Islanders on many facets of Long Island’s economy. This report demonstrates the critically important role of the immigrant population on Long Island and details their contributions to the economy.

Adelphi University - Alumni House
154 Cambridge Ave, Garden City, NY 11530

Admission is free
Please RSVP to longislandwins@gmail.com or 516.304.5642
LIWins

Related: New Study by Adelphi University's Dr. Mariano Torras: Immigrants Contribute $Billions to LI Economy

New Study by Adelphi University's Dr. Mariano Torras: Immigrants Contribute $Billions to LI Economy

Immigrants are major contributors to Long Island's economy.

That is the major finding of Strengthening Long Island: The Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Nassau and Suffolk Counties, a new report by Mariano Torras, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Economics at Adelphi University and Fellow at the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

Unveiled Monday, the report follows the release in 2007 of The Economic Impact of The Hispanic Population on Long Island, NY. Both reports were funded by The Hagedorn Foundation in Port Washington.

Here are some press reactions:

Study: Immigrant economic impact $10.6 billion on LI
Long Island Business News

A study released Monday by Adelphi University shows that Long Island immigrants contributed $10.6 billion to the Long Island economy in 2006 and generated about 82,000 jobs as a result of their consumer spending. The study added that Long Island would have lost rather than gained population since 1980 without the immigrant population.

Long Islanders take opposing views on immigrants
Newsday

"We lost a labor pool but gained a new wealthier population that demands services, and the Latinos jumped in and filled the gap," said Kappel, a real estate broker and the former mayor of Greenport. "It's been very beneficial."

Adelphi Study Says Immigrants No Drain on Long Island Economy
Associated Content

The breakdown of financial contribution by culture was $3,249.00 by Asian immigrants, $4,029.00 by non-Hispanic white immigrants, $842.00 by Hispanic immigrants and $789.00 by black immigrants.

Latino Unemployment Spikes

According to a new report by the Pew Research Center, the unemployment rate for Latinos in the U.S. rose to 6.5% in the first quarter of 2008, well above the 4.7% rate for all non-Latinos.

The spike in Latino unemployment has hit immigrants especially hard. Their unemployment rate was 7.5% in the first quarter of this year, marking the first time since 2003 that a higher percentage of foreign-born Latinos was unemployed than native-born Latinos.

Some 52.5% of working-age Latinos (ages 16 and older) are immigrants. Latinos make up 14.2% of the U.S. labor force.

Latino Labor Report, 2008: Construction Reverses Job Growth for Latinos

Stony Brook Study: Prescription Drugs and Long Islanders

According to a newly released poll by Stony Brook University's Center for Survey Research, some Long Islanders are taking unhealthy measures to cope with the high cost of prescription drugs.

The survey found that one in five (21%) residents delay filling their prescriptions, skip doses, or go without other necessities such as food and heat. In addition, 12% lack any prescription drug coverage.

Other survey highlights include:
-- 18% of young adults ages 18 and 34 lack prescription drug coverage.
-- 16% of Nassau County residents lack drug coverage compared to 9% in Suffolk County.
-- 24% of people ages 35 and 64 had delayed filling their prescriptions, skipped doses, or have gone without other necessities.

Unexamined are questions related to the over prescription of drugs.

Visitors from 101 Long Island Communities (29 countries and 38 states)

I started Latino Long Island October 2008--and, thus far, I've done zippo marketing for it.

So it's also a pleasant surprise to learn that so many people searching the Internet find their way to Latino Long Island and my other weblogs.

My sites have a cool data-collection tool called Google Analytics -- a free tool that collects and reports on a wide range of traffic and visitor data, including visitor patterns and preferences.

One of the things I love checking daily is where readers live. My weblog visitors are from 1,000s of towns from across America and the globe. Visitors from 29 countries and 38 US states (plus DC) have visited Latino Long Island.

In terms of local visitors, Long Islanders have visited Latino Long Island in access of 1000 times, representing 101 different jurisdictions or hometowns. My goal is to reach every neighborhood, village, town, city, halmlet and barrier island of our Latino Long Island.

Here's the list of towns as of March 18, 2008:

1. Albertson
2. Astoria
3. Babylon
4. Bay Shore
5. Bayside
6. Bethpage
7. Brentwood
8. Bridgehampton
9. Brooklyn
10. Calverton
11. Carle Place
12. Centereach
13. Central Islip
14. Cold Spring Harbor
15. College Point
16. Commack
17. Corona
18. Deer Park
19. East Hampton
20. East Meadow
21. East Northport
22. East Norwich
23. Elmhurst
24. Elmont
25. Farmingdale
26. Farmingville
27. Floral Park
28. Flushing
29. Forest Hills
30. Franklin Square
31. Garden City
32. Glenwood Landing
33. Great Neck
34. Greenlawn
35. Harrison
36. Hauppauge
37. Hempstead
38. Hicksville
39. Holbrook
40. Holtsville
41. Huntington
42. Huntington Station
43. Islandia
44. Islip Terrace
45. Jackson Heights
46. Jamaica
47. Jericho
48. Lake Grove
49. Levittown
50. Long Island City
51. Malverne
52. Manhasset
53. Manorville
54. Massapequa
55. Mastic
56. Mattituck
57. Medford
58. Melville
59. Middle Island
60. Miller Place
61. Mineola
62. Nesconset
63. New Hyde Park
64. North Babylon
65. Oakdale
66. Old Bethpage
67. Plainview
68. Port Jefferson Station
69. Queens Village
70. Rego Park
71. Ridge
72. Riverhead
73. Rockville Centre
74. Rocky Point
75. Ronkonkoma
76. Roosevelt
77. Rosedale
78. Roslyn
79. Roslyn Heights
80. Sayville
81. Selden
82. Shirley
83. Smithtown
84. Southampton
85. St James
86. Stony Brook
87. Sunnyside
88. Syosset
89. Uniondale
90. Upton
91. Valley Stream
92. Wantagh
93. Water Mill
94. West Babylon
95. West Hempstead
96. West Islip
97. Westbury
98. Williston Park
99. Woodbury
100. Woodside
101. Wyandanch

Breast cancer gene puts Latinas at risk

A gene known to give many Jewish women a high risk of cancer also puts many Hispanic women at high risk, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

They found that 3.5 percent of Hispanic women entered in a Northern California breast cancer registry had the BRCA1 genetic mutation, compared to 8.3 percent of Ashkenazic Jews and 2.2 percent of non-Ashkenazic white women.

More

Related:
NIH: Breast Cancer
North Shore LIJ: Breast Health
NYS Department of Health: About Breast Cancer

Immigrants: Huge Boon to New York

A new report shows that immigrants are a huge boon to the New York economy. How big?

The study found that immigrants were responsible for $229 billion of New York's economy last year — more than the individual gross domestic product of 30 states.

Now that's big!

The report was sponsored by L.I.'s Horace Hagedorn Foundation and The New York Community Trust.

Related:

Immigrants Pull Weight in Economy, Study Finds
Immigrants Are Seen as a Boon: A New Report Sees Big Impact

Research Reports

Climate of Fear: Latino Immigrants in Suffolk County, N.Y.

Hispanic Immigration on Long Island

Room for Growth: LI's Changing Economy

Strengthening Long Island: The Economic Contributions of Immigrants to Nassau and Suffolk Counties

The Economic Impact of the Hispanic Population on L.I.

The Economics of Immigration: A Two-Century Legacy of Dysfunction

Working Together in New Ways for L.I.'s Future