Local foreclosure filings up

Foreclosure filings in Hernando County are up 67 percent from last year.

The county clerk's office recorded 159 foreclosure filings in January, up from 95 in January 2011.

And February is off to a bad start. Already, as of Friday, there were 116 filings for the month with about two weeks to go.

That compares with 70 filings in February 2011.

County Commissioner Wayne Dukes said the foreclosure crisis continues to affect the bottom line of Hernando County, not only monetarily but from an esthetic viewpoint. These homes become an eyesore and can represent a safety hazard should people injure themselves while walking through a home that falls into disrepair.

"I don't think throwing federal money at (the problem) will fix it," Dukes said. "We need to get people back to work."

Employed people can afford to buy up some of these homes and remove the inventory, he said.

There are residents now who cannot even afford to rent and are forced to live in the woods, he said.

Hernando County's foreclosure fling rate decreased the first four months of 2011. But starting in June, they started escalating, reaching a high of 174 in October.

"I think we're going to end up with houses that will never sell and will have to be abandoned at some point," Dukes said.

Foreclosure filings had dropped dramatically at the start of last year because of the "robo-signer" scandal, where some banks and mortgage lenders were found to have paid people to forge their names on documents that were used to start foreclosure proceedings.

The federal Office of Comptroller of the Currency ordered financial institutions to review their practices.

But now that banks have had time to adjust, the foreclosure numbers are on the way back up, not only in Hernando County but elsewhere in the nation.

"Although overall foreclosure activity was down from a year ago for the 16th straight month in January, we continue to see signs on a local and regional level that the frozen-up foreclosure process is beginning to thaw," said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac, in a news release.

"We expect the pattern of increasing foreclosures to continue in the coming months, especially given the finalized mortgage and foreclosure settlement reached in early February between 49 state attorneys general and five of the nation's largest lenders," Moore said.