Is Queens, N.Y.'s Housing Market Headed for Collapse?

If you feel you got away too easily in the housing collapse, maybe you live in New York's Queens or on the outskirts of another big American city.

Keith Jurow at the Real Estate Channel recently posted an interesting piece, teasingly titled "A Housing Price Collapse in Queens New York Is Almost Certain," in which he argues that homeowners in Queens are a sorry mess who haven't gotten their comeuppance yet.

Citing figures from RealtyTrac and Trulia, among others, he calculates that as of June 16 there were 9,054 Queens homes that banks had put in default since February 2009, none of which had been foreclosed yet. More than 4,000 of those have mortgage debts above $400,000. By his count, at least 25,000 properties in Queens are delinquent in their payment by 60 days or more.

"What happens when the banks start putting into default the 25,000 seriously delinquent homeowners and foreclosing on the 9,000+ properties currently in default?" he asks.