By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
JEFFERSON — The number of foreclosures filed with the Ashtabula County clerk of courts hit 84 in December, pushing the total for the year to 804.
The trend for 2010 isn’t looking much better, either: As of Jan. 29, 70 foreclosures were filed. At that pace, the county is on track for more than 800 filings again in 2010.
Court Clerk Carol Mead said her office receives, on average, at least three new foreclosures daily.
“You would think by now, it would have tapered off, but I haven’t seen it,” she said.
Virtually all of the lenders who filed foreclosures in December are from outside the county. Lenders with the most foreclosure activity during December were Chase (8), Citi Mortgage (9), Wells Fargo (11), Bank of America Home Loan Servicing (14) and Deutsche Bank (5).
Five cases were filed by the Ashtabula County treasurer.
In 2008, 765 foreclosures were filed and in 2007, 740.
“It’s just getting worse and worse,” said Common Pleas Court Judge Al Mackey.
Paul Bryant, a Realtor with Howard Hanna, says both the economy and the government’s push for forbearance helped drive up the numbers in 2009.
“Foreclosures were horrible this past year and are still going to be because the banks had put a moratorium on foreclosures,” Bryant says.
Since then, banks have resumed foreclosing, creating a flood of new filings.
Not all cases that are filed end up at a sheriff’s sale. A spokeswoman for the civil division of the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department said there were 553 sheriff’s sales completed in 2009. Some of the falloff can be attributed to Ohio House Bill 138, a sweeping law that allows the court to require mediation at any point during the foreclosure proceeding.
Wendy Hawbaker, program coordinator and mediator with the Ashtabula County Joint Court Mediation Project, said 196 foreclosures were referred for mediation in 2009. Some of those have not yet gone into the process, but 137 cases were mediated in 2009. The success of the cases is hard to gauge because there is a trial period of three to six months for every case where an agreement is reached. At the end of the period, the debtor’s payment history is reviewed.
Of the mediated cases that were concluded, about 63 percent reach an agreement, usually a loan modification. In the other cases, it’s usually a matter of the debtor simply not having the money or a job that would make the bank willing to work with him.
Mackey says he has only anecdotal information on the willingness of banks to give homeowners a second chance. One case that stands out in his mind involved a homeowner who was “under water” on the mortgage — the person owed more than what the house was worth — but was still willing to stay in the house and work out a modification. The bank rejected the offer, and when the property sold, it was 25 percent of what the debtor had been willing to pay.
That kind of devaluation brought about by foreclosures is driving down the average sales price in the county and affecting the value of homes that aren’t in foreclosure.
There was a glimmer of hope at the end of 2009, when fourth-quarter sales in Ashtabula County registered an average sale price of slightly more than $80,000. Going into the quarter, it was in the mid-$70,000 range, Bryant says.
The caveat is that the fourth-quarter’s improved performance could be attributed to the federal government’s homebuyer incentives, which were originally scheduled to expire late last year. They were extended through April.
However, with 804 foreclosures in the pipeline, and another 70 or so being added monthly, little relief is in sight for property owners who can’t sell because they are under water or don’t want to take a beating on their equity.
“We’re going to see about the same in 2010,” Bryant predicts. “I don’t like to say that. It’s hard to fathom that we can go down much more, but until the economy turns around, we’re going to be in this predicament.”
Bryant says that with low interest rates and a glut of homes to choose from, this is a great time to purchase, especially for investment.
“Too many homes, way too low of a price,” he said of the current state of the market. “If you got the money, this is the time to buy.”
