This, according to local housing market analysts, has caused properties being sold at home auctions in Ohio to suffer from significant price declines. To make matters worse, housing authorities are reporting that abandoned or unkempt properties are now as common in small cities as it is in metro areas.

As the number of properties offered at auctions of foreclosed homes in the state increases, empty and derelict-looking properties have also risen in number. According to local statistics, vacant houses have been growing in number in Ohio by an average of 5% each year since 2000. This figure is about 25% higher than the country-wide average.

Although the number of empty and abandoned properties accumulated in the past few years have slowed down in big cities and Dayton foreclosure auctions have less of these types of properties on offer, the total number is not diminishing since the trend is just moving to smaller counties and towns. Just like in big cities, smaller areas are now faced with the problem of declining property values due to these abandoned premises. They also force local authorities to shell out tax money to finance the maintenance or demolition of such properties.

Local figures showed that between 2000 and 2010, vacant houses in places like Cleveland, Dayton, Cincinnati, Toledo and Columbus have grown by around 6.1% every year. The figure is significantly higher than the country-wide growth average of 5.4%. Market analysts are predicting that the growth will continue for the next five years, with a yearly increase of at least three percent. They also predicted the smaller towns and cities to be at par with bigger metros in terms of vacant property numbers.

One local area that is starting to record big numbers of abandoned premises is Sandusky County, with over 2,000 vacant dwellings in 2010. Analysts have stated that this trend, just like the increase in the number of properties under Dayton foreclosure auctions, is mainly due to high unemployment rates in the whole state.

Empty Homes Lower Prices of Properties in Dayton Foreclosure Auctions is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.

In Toledo and in other parts of Lucas County, foreclosure actions increased to 854 postings, a jump of 1.6 percent from March and an increase of 1.8 percent from April 2009.

In contrast, Ohio home auctions slowed down in April. Both the number of foreclosure filings and repossessed units decreased during the month. Total foreclosure actions dropped by 7.1 percent from 12,849 in March to 11,936 in April while the number of units repossessed or purchased through house foreclosure auctions fell by almost 3 percent from 3,864 in March to 3,749 in April.

Compared to other counties in Ohio, Lucas County was fourth in total foreclosure postings. It was Cuyahoga which posted the biggest number, followed by Franklin and Hamilton. Lucas, however, was second in foreclosure rate, with one foreclosure action for every 239 homes. Marion posted the highest rate with one filing for every 216 homes.

Despite the surge in homes auctions in Toledo in April, sales prices during the month rose compared to the previous month because of the spike in number of buyers. The expiring tax credits and the traditional spring buying season contributed largely to the spike, according to local realtors.

The average sales price for homes in Lucas County in April was $102,577, a sharp jump of nearly 15 percent from the March average price, based on sales data from the Toledo Board of Realtors. In the northwest part of Ohio, the average sales price was $106,863, an increase of 8.5 percent from the average price in March.

In Toledo, the price median increased by 13 percent, and in 28 other Ohio cities, the median price rose by more than 10 percent. Total home sales in Toledo and in other parts of Lucas County and northwest Ohio all increased from their total sales in April last year.

On the whole, homes auctions in Toledo surged in April, but the pace of increase slowed down, indicating some signs of recovery in the metro area.

Search foreclosed home auctions in Ohio cities:

• Foreclosed home auctions in Cleveland
• Foreclosed home auctions in Columbus
• Foreclosed home auctions in Cincinnati
• Foreclosed home auctions in Euclid
• Foreclosed home auctions in Akron

Homes Auctions in Toledo Surged, Bucked Statewide Trend is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.

The county auctioned off only 1,317 housing units in 2009, a big decline from the 2,919 units sold off in 2008. The total value of homes sold last year was $92.3 million, a substantial drop from the $198 million in auction sales in 2008.

The drop in foreclosure sales last year is good news to most people, but housing analysts warn that the foreclosure sales decline is not yet a strong sign of market recovery. According to Mark Seifert, head of the Cleveland organization called Empowering and Strengthening Ohio’s People, the sharp drop in foreclosures was largely caused by the rising number of mortgage lenders not immediately pursuing sheriff’s auctions after getting court approvals because of the extremely low level of home prices.

Thomas Teodosio, Common Pleas Judge of Summit County, also said that many banks have been withdrawing distressed properties from scheduled home foreclosure auctions because they do not want to burden themselves with real estate taxes and maintenance costs in case the properties are not sold off. Teodosio, however, reiterated that he only approves withdrawals if the reasons are legitimate.

There are also other major reasons for the decline in foreclosures, according to analysts. These include foreclosure moratoriums, personal bankruptcies, short sale initiatives, court-ordered mediation and loan modification under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program.

County officials also reported that they conducted more auctions in 2008 than in 2009. Almost 5,150 foreclosed homes were scheduled for public auction in 2008, far above the 2,979 foreclosure homes readied for auction in 2009.

Across Ohio, foreclosure postings reached a record 85,773 filings last year, based on data from the Ohio Supreme Court. The biggest increases occurred in Medina, Portage, Lake and Geauga, where filings shot up by 10 to 15 percent.

While foreclosure activity slowed in the counties of Cuyahoga and Summit, they posted the two highest numbers in foreclosure filings in 2009, which are 13,858 and 4,113 filings, respectively.

Akron, the county seat of Summit County, has been among the most foreclosure-clobbered counties in the nation. Over the past five years, around 20,000 housing units in the county have been hit with foreclosure filings, and out of these distressed properties, over 10,600 homes have been sold off at home foreclosure auctions.

Home Foreclosure Auctions in Summit Bucked Rising Ohio Trend is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.

The Attorney General, together with the Ohio Department of Commerce, claimed that Carrington failed to carry out the provisions of an agreement in January 2008 to modify loans to cut down foreclosures across the state. The lawsuit also claimed that Carrington violated state consumer laws with its failure to serve its customers.

In 2008, Carrington signed an agreement with the state to resolve the state’s dispute with defunct subprime lender New Century Financial Corporation, which was acquired by Carrington’s parent company Carrington Capital Management in 2007.

Cordray reiterated that the lawsuit shows that the state is serious in going after mortgage lenders and servicers who refuse to carry out the Making Home Affordable program by rejecting loan modification applications from their troubled customers.

He also explained the importance of stopping the continued rise in foreclosures as these feed the cycle of defaults that are blocking housing market recovery and economic resurgence.

In a recent report on foreclosure postings nationwide for the first 6 months of 2009, Ohio was ranked 12th in a ranking of states based on their foreclosure rates. One housing unit out of 86 households across the state was hit with a foreclosure filing, with nearly 59,000 households in default or in the last stages of the foreclosure process.

In June, Ohio had more than 11,000 households in various stages of foreclosure, with more than 3,000 units already counted as real estate owned properties. Ohio was tenth among states based on foreclosure rates in June.

Attorney General Cordray said his office sued to seek restitution for customers and civil damages and penalties.

Mortgage servicers are among the financial institutions expected to help slow down the pace of foreclosures because they are the ones collecting and distributing monthly loan payments from borrowers to investors. Months ago, more than 24 mortgage servicers committed to carry out the Home Affordable Modification Program, which provides cash incentives for all successful loan modifications worked out.

In response to the lawsuit, Carrington Mortgage emailed a statement to the media saying the lawsuit is meritless. The company claimed that it had completed loan modifications for about half of its mortgage borrowers.

Ohio Sues Carrington for Failure to Help Curb Repo Homes is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, there was not a housing boom in Ohio and so it could never be blamed for the current foreclosure and housing crisis in the state.

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland senior research economist Emre Ergunor explained that Ohio experienced a credit boom and not a housing boom. He pointed out that the credit boom still supported house prices. However, he clarified that Ohio did not get the kind of credit boom similar to that in California and Florida.

Data from the Federal Housing Finance Agency showed that Ohio’s home market prices increased 3 to 4 percent annually during the national housing boom from 2003 to 2005. Meanwhile, California’s home values jumped 14 to 21 percent annually and 12 to 27 percent yearly in Florida.

And since the last quarter of 2006, the home market value dropped by almost $4.2 trillion.

Meanwhile, many homeowners in the country have lost their properties to foreclosures.

Data from RealtyTrac Inc. showed that 342,000 homeowners received notices of foreclosure in April. Additionally, foreclosure filing rate for last month accounted for 1 in every 374 housing units.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, which has jurisdiction on the regions of western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia’s northern panhandle and eastern Kentucky, has recommended several measures to address the house repo problems in the area.

The Fed recommendations included modification of loan terms of distressed homeowners facing foreclosure, demolishing vacant houses, aggressive enforcement of housing codes and allowing homeowners to rent and stay in their properties.

Ergungor explained that these recommended measures will not address and eradicate the fundamental causes of house repo problem and sliding housing prices.

However, he pointed out that the first goal of the Fed is to prevent the further decline of home values. After the goal to stop housing value declines has been achieved, the next step will be determined by the state’s demographics and economy.

According to the report, the state’s house repo problem started in several Ohio counties in 2000, driven by the rise in unemployment and not by the national housing boom.

Housing Bubble: Not Cause of House Repo Increase in Ohio is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.