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Hernando Today

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A Flurry of Foreclosures

By MICHAEL D. BATES

Published: February 22, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - BROOKSVILLE - Another day. Another box of foreclosure filings.

In what is becoming the norm at the county's government center, Circuit Court Clerk Karen Nicolai and her staffers filed 20 new foreclosures Thursday.

"We get a boxful every day," Nicolai said.

One recent day, staffers got a box of about 35 filings, Nicolai said.

And in another sign that the economy is still in the dumps, the clerk's office Thursday had to deal with the filing of no less than 70 small claims and county civil claims. Most of them were from people who couldn't pay their credit card debt, Nicolai said.

Circuit court staffers rushed to meet state performance standards that require processing be completed in two days.

If the economy is getting any better, "we aren't seeing it here," Nicolai said.

In fact, in January, the county recorded 256 foreclosures, which Nicolai believes to be a one-month record.

The county recorded 1,926 foreclosures in 2007, more than a 250 percent increase from 2006.

Here is the number of 2007 foreclosures filed in Hernando County Circuit Civil Court:

January: 108.

February: 121.

March: 127.

April: 131.

May: 113.

June: 155.

July: 168.