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Ohio Foreclosures, Sheriff Sales Grew in 2003
The number of Ohioans who lost their homes to foreclosure and sheriff
sales grew again in 2003. Foreclosure filings increased 3 percent in Ohio,
while sheriff sales of foreclosed properties continued to soar, up 26
percent from 2002. Those were among the findings of Home Security 2004:
Foreclosure Growth in Ohio, a new report issued today by Policy Matters
Ohio.
Foreclosures usually occur when a borrower, unable to meet mortgage payments,
defaults on a loan. Sheriff sales are the actual auctions of the foreclosed
homes. Policy Matters Ohio analyzed foreclosure data from the Ohio Supreme
Court and obtained data on sheriff sales by surveying the state‚s
county sheriffs. Our research finds:
· During 2003, 57,083 new foreclosure filings were made in Ohio
courts, up 3 percent from a year earlier, up 31 percent from 2001 and
more than double the number in 1998.
· County sheriff departments put more than 36,425 foreclosed properties
up for sale. That represents a 26 percent increase from 2002 and a 57
percent increase from just two years earlier.
· The number of properties put up for sale last year equated to
about one in every 117 Ohio households. That compares to one out of every
185 households in 2001.
· The number of sheriff sales grew in 76 of the 81 counties for
which we obtained data in both 2001 and 2003. Even fast-growing suburban
counties such as Delaware, Warren and Medina saw big increases.
The recent growth comes after a dramatic increase between the mid-1990s
and 2001, as detailed in a previous Policy Matters Ohio study. There are
some signs of improvement. Twenty-two Ohio counties experienced a decline
in foreclosure filings last year, and a survey by the Mortgage Bankers
Association of America found that new foreclosures started as a share
of all 1- to 4-unit residential mortgage loans in the state fell in the
first quarter of 2004 from the previous quarter. However, according to
the MBA survey, Ohio ranks second in the country in new foreclosure rates,
and those remain far above historical levels.
A weak economy and predatory lending clearly are major contributors to
the continued increase in foreclosures and sheriff sales. Among 57 sheriff
departments that responded to a Policy Matters survey question asking
about what was behind the foreclosures, 16 ranked job loss or a weak economy
first among the factors. However, 31 cited predatory lending -- deceptive,
high-cost loans with excessive interest rates, fees and penalties. Predatory
lending has grown with subprime loans, which are offered at higher cost
than conventional loans to customers who have had credit problems. So
far, however, the state of Ohio has not taken major steps to curb predatory
lending practices. The report concludes with recommendations on how the
General Assembly should respond to this issue.
Policy Matters Ohio is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute that
focuses on issues that matter to low- and middle-income Ohioans. The full
report is available at www.policymattersohio.org/Home_Insecurity_2004.htm.
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