Housing continued on A4
The foreclosure crisis in Ohio could come to an end after one more bump in foreclosure-related action by lenders, area real estate and banking experts said Wednesday.
Despite a flat change in January in foreclosure filings in Butler County, actual foreclosures are expected to fall once the market overcomes an expected bump in foreclosure-related filings spurred by the recent $25 billion multi-state foreclosure fraud settlement, said real estate and bank experts.
More foreclosures released on the market now that the settlement has been reached could be the last glut to hit. In coming months, the settlement will mean banks that had a hold on foreclosures in its system will process them, probably a moderate bump in Ohio, said James Thurston, spokesman for Ohio Bankers League. Over time, the settlement’s help for homeowners on principal reductions and loan modifications should slowly reduce foreclosures filed, Thurston said.
“I think the majority of Ohio foreclosures have already been worked through the system, so while you’ll see a moderate bump, it won’t be as big as some other states. Our banks in Ohio by and large practiced responsible lending and responsible foreclosure processes,” he said. “This is going to be the last glut. The foreclosure numbers in general will start to moderate and then they’ll start to fall.”
The federal-state foreclosure settlement was announced Feb. 9 with Ally, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo.
RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist said the main part of the settlement is to help homes that aren’t in foreclosure yet and its given clarity to the right way to foreclose on a house.
“We think it will loosen up the log-jam of foreclosures we’ve seen in many parts of the country which may sound counterintuitive since the settlement is meant to reduce foreclosures,” Blomquist said. “Another piece of the settlement is laying out guidelines for lenders and servicers to foreclose and by doing that, the settlement is kind of solidifying what is an acceptable foreclosure process...That’s what has been bogging down many foreclosures in the past year and a half.”
Foreclosure filings in Butler County were barely up in January by about 1.5 percent from the same time last year, according to numbers released today by RealtyTrac Inc., a California-based online firm that tracks foreclosures. New listings, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions were made against 265 properties in the county area in January, compared to 261 foreclosure filings of some kind the same month a year ago.
Ohio’s rate of foreclosures in January is the 12th highest in the U.S. One in every 616 housing units had some kind of foreclosure filing for a total 8,325 filings. Nevada has the highest rate of 1 in every 198 homes with foreclosure action, according to RealtyTrac.
Overall, Ohio had 8,325 foreclosure filings in January, a decline of about 7 percent from a year ago.
Hamilton County saw a slight decline in foreclosure filings to 541 properties, compared to 562 filings a year ago, according to RealtyTrac.
“I hope that says we have seen the worst of it and that we are cleaning up that inventory and we are going to be more quickly on the road to recovery,” said Bob Miller, president of Ohio Association of Realtors. “We still have a long way to go.”
Shaun Bond, director of the University of Cincinnati Real Estate Center, thinks the area housing market is improving. He anticipates home sales to improve this year because of improving employment conditions. That’s combined with interested rates that are expected to remain low until at least 2014, a strong case for home affordability, Bond said.
“For the next year or two I think the foreclosures levels will stay pretty high,” he said.
Bond doesn’t think the foreclosure robo-signing settlement will have a large impact on foreclosure filing.
“Partly because it’s my understanding with this settlement potentially banks have up to three years to modify those mortgages,” he said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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