Neighborhoods throughout West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania saw their foreclosure lists grew to a record high for the first seven months of this year.
Market data showed that on average, one homeowner in Washington County, Maryland lost his property to foreclosure. Since January 1 of this year, the number of foreclosure properties sold at auctions or repossessed by lenders totaled 319, an increase of 44 percent for the same period last year.
In Berkeley County, West Virginia, foreclosure sales totaled 480, a jump of almost 70 percent for the same period last year. In Jefferson County, foreclosure sales increased by 29 percent to 574 properties. Similarly, foreclosure sales also went up in Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
Industry analysts said that a major reason for the foreclosure increase in the region is the continuing unemployment growth. As of June this year, the unemployment rate grew almost twice compared with last year.
Washington County reported 10.5 percent jobless rate, 10 percentage point in Berkeley County, 9.9 percent in the county of Morgan in West Virginia, 8.3 percent in the county of Jefferson, 8.4 in the county of Franklin and a whopping 15 percent in the Pennsylvania county of Fulton.
Industry analysts said that two years ago, the situation in the housing market was different, with foreclosures being driven by borrowers who took out subprime loans. And as the fallout of subprime loan starts to wane, here comes the worsening recession and rising unemployment rate. Adding to the problem is the drastic drop in property values which discourage many homeowners to keep their accounts current.
Meanwhile, in Franklin County, foreclosure filings were made on 290 properties so far this year, compared with 288 posted for the same period last year. In Washington County, 593 foreclosure cases were filed, nearly twice the 318 initiated for the same period the previous year.
Foreclosure homes sold in Washington County in January reached 29, 22 in February, 25 the following month and 31 in April and 36 in May. The highest number of foreclosure sales in Washington County was posted in June with 55 properties.
On the other hand, property values in June soared to almost $12.3 million, double the value of distressed properties sold in May and more than twice the value of homes sold in June last year.
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