Foreclosures Render Thousands Homeless In Counties

July 9th, 2008 | Tags: Foreclosures

Foreclosures are rendering thousands homeless and auctioneering of Madison County homes are just a speck in that dark gloomy foreclosure horizon. Values of homes have made a nosedive tagging with itself the scaling cost of living, and together with an already limping economy have pitched the foreclosure rates to its zenith. Realtytrac, in its online tracking website mentioned 1110 Madison county homes as either in a process of foreclosure or already foreclosed upon. Another 134 homes were going under the hammer in a sheriff’s sale, shortly

In charge of sales at the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, Abby Ramsey had noted a sharp rise in the number of houses on sale and Anderson was the leader in foreclosure rates. In recent times, Elwood lead the way. Where one or two houses would raise eyebrows, 15 out of 65 houses to be auctioned were in Elwood alone. Out of 2508 owner occupied homes facing foreclosure, 6.8% were in Elwood. A good 2% above the foreclosure rates in Anderson. Not a single neighborhood in Elwood was spared from the menace of foreclosure and the price at which it listed hobnobbed with each house being added to the foreclosure list.

Foreclosures devalued the prices of beautiful homes put up for sale. There was rising discontent as people had to compete with the sale prices of foreclosure homes and their dream homes did not fetch a decent value, explained Bob Jones of Bob Jones Realty in Elwood. Two plants had closed down and a third was in the offing leaving 500 Elwood county residents jobless–a situation that did not impress a silver lining to keep up home values.
In Pendleton, 813 owner occupied homes at the pre-foreclosure state were either with the bank or being auctioned. It was burdened with a 6.8% rate, the highest in county foreclosures

The beginning of foreclosure and the end of owning a home is set in motion by a failure to pay the installments due to the bank. One is required to miss three consecutive house payments to trigger off foreclosure proceedings by the bank. The mortgaged property then takes about six to eight months from the date of last final payment to make it to the foreclosure list. They are then put up for auction but usually the banks that had sanctioned the initial mortgage are stranded with the foreclosure property. It is a dismal trend without signs of recovery.