New York foreclosure rates rose 67% in July 2008 as compared to figures of the same month last year according to Gothamist intensifying New York’s statewide foreclosure crisis.

The New York Post reports that Queens foreclosure rates represented half of the total number of seized houses in the city with 178 homes foreclosed. This figure represents an 81% increase in the foreclosure rate year over year. Brooklyn followed with a 63% increase, a 16% rise in Bronx, 7.6% in Manhattan and lastly, a 215% leap in Staten Island.

The rising foreclosure rate, combined with a low number of houses being sold, have sent the median sales prices in New York plummeting.

Meanwhile, the New York court system has been looking to different ways to help the homeowners that are having a hard time keeping their homes. This, combined with New York’s newly-enacted law requiring 90 day’s advance notice of foreclosure auctions, may provide some measure of temporary relief to homeowners at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure.

Still, most homeowners facing foreclosure are unaware that valid foreclosure defenses exist. New York homeowners may contact me or call toll-free to 800-497-5717 to set up a free, no-obligation telephone consultation to discuss their options.

I ran across a story in the New York Post, by way of Brownstoner, that indicates Brooklyn foreclosure rates jumped nearly 27% in the first quarter of 2008. That may sound bad, but consider this - the foreclosure rate in the rest of the city has gone up between 34.9% (Bronx) and a staggering 101% (Staten Island). And the rest of the country is faring even worse, with a leap of 112% year-over-year.

The part that bugs me is the fact that so many of these foreclosures could be fought if only the homeowners knew there were lawyers out there to help them. Instead, they sit idly by and wait for the gavel to fall. Their homes gone, their dreams dashed, and their equity stripped away by hyper-inflated foreclosure costs and legal fees to the lender’s attorneys.

Homeowners across the country have fallen victim to the ruthless banking industry and their shell game of “moving mortgages.” The loan is sold, sliced and diced so many ways that in the end there is no single entity to whom you owe money. In fact, nobody can even prove they have the right to foreclose.

But do homeowners know this? Nope.

So the statistics mount on a daily basis, the carnage getting worse each quarter. It won’t be long until huge swaths of New York City are boarded up and abandoned, shadows of the 1970’s and urban decay.

The current foreclosure crisis focuses largely on the subprime market, those downtrodden middle- and lower-class consumers who were suckered into the American Dream and sold homes clearly beyond their means.  But what of the affluent, those folks living in huge McMansions and riding around in expensive cars?

A recent article focuses on this problem and reveals some (not so shocking) facts - the rich are headed into the same sinkhole as the rest of the nation.

According to Loan Performance, a unit of First American CoreLogic, a real estate information company based in Santa Ana, Calif., about 870,000 borrowers took jumbo ARMs — mortgages of $417,000 or more — from 2005 to 2007. In the fourth quarter of 2007, 8.10 percent were two or more payments late, it found, while 2.62 percent were in the foreclosure process and 1.35 percent had been foreclosed. All the numbers were up from the third quarter.

Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Economy.com, predicted that eventually 8 percent of these jumbo ARMs will be foreclosed. In the first quarter of 2008, “the delinquency and foreclosure rate will clearly be higher,” he said.

This shouldn’t come as any surprise to even the casual reader.  The wealthy are just as prone to a “keeping up with the Jonses” mentality, striving to outdo one another in the driveway and in social settings - who has the nicest car, the biggest house, the pool table in the finished basement, the home theater system . . . the list goes on and on.

These trappings of “success” come with a hefty price tag, one that cannot be easily be borne by most people regardless of their income level.

The only difference between the wealthy and the rest of the world is that when faced with foreclosure, those with money often find an experience lawyer to help them.  They are well-versed in the defenses available to them in a foreclosure proceeding, and can use this information to their advantage.

As the information playing field is leveled, however, more and more American consumers are standing up for their rights and keeping the pressure on the mortgage servicers.  And at the end of the day, the person in jeans will stand next to the one in the Armani suit.  Armed with the knowledge of their rights, they will both prevail against abusive mortgage servicers.