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Hernando Today

County Foreclosures Rank 31st In Nation

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By MICHAEL D. BATES

Hernando Today

Published: March 5, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County ranks 31st among all counties in the nation for the number of foreclosures, according to County Clerk Karen Nicolai.

The latest statistics supplied by the clerk's office show the number of foreclosure filings in the first two months of 2009 was 562, almost 6 percent higher than the 531 recorded from the same period last year.

For all of 2008, there were 3,256 foreclosures filed in Hernando County.

Those statistics include residential and commercial properties and do not reflect properties sold or settlements.

Statewide, as of March 4, there were 66,204 foreclosed properties and 60,631 in a pre-foreclosure status.

"It's sad," Nicolai said. "We get a box (of foreclosures) every day."

Foreclosure statistics were at the center of a controversy over the weekend when Marilyn Pearson-Adams, president of the Hernando County Association of Realtors (HCAR), e-mailed county commissioners and told them out of the 3,107 homes on the market, only 181 are foreclosed properties.

Because of that, she urged commissioners to refocus the emphasis of their proposed Comprehensive Plan for Recovery (CPR) solely from housing and concentrate more on job creation.

That brought a sharp rebuke from local homebuilder and civic activist Blaise Ingoglia, the author of the CPR plan.

The plan would take $2.5 million from general fund reserves to help finance economic stimulus grant money to potential homeowners who could then buy up foreclosed homes.

In an e-mail, Ingoglia disputed Pearson-Adam's foreclosure numbers and said she didn't bother to review the entire CPR plan, a charge that the HCAR denies.

Ingoglia said Wednesday he is preparing a report that will show "a true reflection of the market and what's going on."

Pearson-Adams explained Wednesday that the 181 properties she cited in her report were the active number of listed foreclosed single-family homes for sale as recorded through the multi-listing services when she compiled her statistics on Feb. 23.

Why the seeming discrepancy when compared to the county's foreclosure figures?

"The difference is that the banks have not listed (those) through the Realtor yet," Pearson-Adams said. "We don't have access to those properties through the MLS yet."

Meanwhile, the resale home market is not getting any healthier.

Pending home sales declined on the heels of a weakening economy and with some buyers waiting for clarity on housing stimulus provisions, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The pending home sales index, which looks at contracts signed in January, fell 7.7 percent to 80.4 in December, and is 6.4 percent below January 2008, when it was 85.9. The index is at the lowest level since tracking began in 2001, when the index value was set at 100.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said the downturn in the economy weighed heavily on the data.

"Even with many serious potential home buyers on the sidelines waiting for passage of the stimulus bill, job losses and weak consumer confidence were a natural drag on home sales," he said. "We expect similarly soft home sales in the near term, but buyers are expected to respond to much improved affordability conditions and from the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit."

Reporter Michael D. Bates can be reached at 352-544-5290 or mbates@hernandotoday.com.

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