Reasons behind Growing York City Repo Homes Lists
The Pennsylvania county of York is not as battered by foreclosures as other counties in Florida and California, but the number of houses entering home auction lists in the county has been increasing.
According to data gathered by nonprofit Housing Alliance as it conducts counseling for distressed homeowners, the most common reasons cited by borrowers for their defaults and impending foreclosures were loss of income, reduction of income, major medical expenses and increase in the home loan amount.
The reasons cited by the others were death in the family, business failure, divorce and poor financial management.
York housing counselors said that job loss is the strongest factor for foreclosures in the county, and not adjustable-rate mortgage loans or other exotic mortgage loans or poor financial decision making.
Foreclosure auctions in York are also not concentrated in certain areas, unlike in other counties, where there are foreclosure hotbeds, according to The York Dispatch.
Nevertheless, there are areas where there are more foreclosures, according to data from the Sheriff’s Department. Zip code 899, which covers West York, North York and parts of York, currently has 899 foreclosure filings while zip code 17403, which covers York City and certain surrounding areas, has 667 filings. Zip code 17331, which covers Hanover, has 345 filings.
Across the county, the number of houses ready for sheriff sale rose to 1,273 units in 2008, an increase of 80.3 percent from 706 units in 2005. Using the 2005 to 2008 pace would bring a total of 1,412 foreclosed units in 2009.
Over the last 4 years, the number of houses sold at sheriff sales rose to 542 units in 2008, an increase of 55.3 percent from 349 units in 2005. Using the 2005 to 2008 pace would bring total sheriff sales to 696 units in 2009.
Another concern of York officials and residents is the proposal by Harley-Davidson, one of the York’s biggest employers, to relocate work from its Springettsbury factory to another plant in another state. If this happens, according to York real estate executive Patricia Carey, around 2,000 residents would lose their jobs and many of them would lose their homes too.
Last year, large numbers of York County residents applied for state emergency loans to keep up with their monthly loan payments. York is seventh in a ranking of 67 Pennsylvania counties based on the number of applications filed for emergency loans under the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program from the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.
