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Ohio’s housing market turned a corner in 2013, with foreclosure activity dropping from 2012 statewide and throughout the region, according to a new report released Thursday.
The year before, foreclosure activity in the state increased from 2011.
Widely followed foreclosure tracking firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Ohio was one of 40 states last year to see fewer default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions filed against properties than the year before. Ohio activity decreased more than 12 percent to 78,488 filings last year, according to RealtyTrac, which monitors multiple stages in the foreclosure process.
The findings reflect records at local county courts for new foreclosure starts.
Dayton Daily News previously reported that Montgomery County was on pace to see in 2013 its lowest number of foreclosure cases filed since 2000. The final numbers show lenders filed 2,677 default notices against property owners in Dayton, Kettering, Trotwood and other Montgomery County communities last year, down 29 percent from 3,753 cases filed in 2012, according to the county clerk of courts statistics.
New foreclosure cases filed in Clark, Greene, Miami and Warren counties also dropped in 2013 from the year before. Last year, 641 cases were filed in Clark, a 28 percent year-over-year drop; 525 cases were filed in Greene, a 29 percent year-over-year drop; 377 cases were filed in Miami, a 27 percent drop; and 858 cases were filed in Warren, a 24 percent drop.
Despite the gains, Ohio overall still had the fifth highest level of foreclosure activity in the U.S. when including auctions scheduled and completed bank repossessions, according to RealtyTrac. One in every 65 Ohio properties in 2013 was in some stage of the foreclosure process, according to the firm’s analysis.
Florida, Nevada, Illinois and Maryland had higher foreclosure rates than Ohio, RealtyTrac said.
“The shadow cast by the foreclosure crisis is shrinking as fewer distressed properties enter foreclosure and properties already in foreclosure are poised to exit in greater numbers in 2014 given the greater numbers of scheduled foreclosure auctions in 2013 in judicial states — which account for the bulk of U.S. foreclosure inventory,” said RealtyTrac spokesman Daren Blomquist in a statement.
Ohio foreclosure cases completed in the third quarter 2013 took an average 627 days to process, between one to two years from the time a lender first files a complaint to when the property was sold in a sheriff’s auction, RealtyTrac said. The time to complete a foreclosure rose 5 percent from a year ago. Ohio ranks 10th-highest in the nation for the length of time to move foreclosures through the system, the firm said.
As a judicial state, foreclosure cases in Ohio must go through the court system.
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