Facepalm.

That’s the Gray Lady folks, suddenly figuring out that high unemployment rates just might — might mind you — have something to do with the “new wave of foreclosures” out there. We’ve been trying to point this connection out, especially with regard to the housing market in Charlotte, for over a year now.

Mecklenburg County has settled in at a steady 1,000 foreclosures a month, a figure which does not include various other states of distress including pre-foreclosure. Nationally, lenders have been parking more and more properties just outside of foreclosure and hoping for the best. The truth is no one really knows how many unperforming loans are out there — aside from the banks, which have no incentive to acknowledge them.

All I know is one new wave deserves another.