It’s an improvement over figures in January, when 61 more foreclosures were filed and 36 more properties were sold at sheriff’s auction compared to the same point last year, the first time foreclosures had increased in a year.
While people who shop for a foreclosed property are usually not the same people buying a newly built or pre-owned home, the extra inventory added to an already backlogged real estate market certainly doesn’t help, said John Prazynski, president of the Hamilton-Fairfield-Oxford Board of Realtors.
Ohio has been named by the federal government as one of the hardest hit states in terms of foreclosure. While not a flattering title, the designation recently garnered it up to $172 million in foreclosure prevention help from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Criteria for the funds was based how the concentrations of each state’s populations living in counties with unemployment above 12 percent in 2009. Currently, Butler County has an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, but Hamilton and Middletown have jobless rates of 12.5 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively.
Statewide, more than 89,000 foreclosures were filed in Ohio last year, up 4 percent from 2008, according to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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