Foreclosure notices rise for the month, year

By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The economy may be recovering slowly, but an increase in the number of foreclosure notices sent out in December added an exclamation point to an already record-breaking year.

While numbers were expected to increase this month, there were still 77 percent more notices published for the 13-county metro area than one year ago, according to data from Alpharetta-based Equity Depot.

Equity Depot tracks notices published each month for public auctions scheduled for the following month. December’s numbers count the homes set for auction in January.

Just because a property receives a notice doesn’t necessarily mean it will be auctioned. Many owners may make last-minute payment arrangements with lender which keeps the property from reaching the auction steps.

According to the data, there were 11,107 foreclosure notices published for the 13-county area this month, compared to 5,834 last December. More than 117,000 notices were published in 2009, up 47 percent from the 79,484 in 2008.

The most recent numbers show filings are up nearly 10 percent from November, but down 16 percent since September, this year’s high-water mark.

In December, Gwinnett had the most notices published with 2,074, followed Fulton with 2,006 and DeKalb with 1,568. Cobb and Clayton rounded out the top five with 1,203 and 866 respectively.

For the year, Fulton led the 13 counties with 24,609 published notices and Gwinnett was next with 23,193.

“I don’t really expect to see any dramatic change until the job situation turns around,” said Carolyn Brown, president of the Community Bankers Association of Georgia. “That there are 77 percent more than this time last year is a strong statement, but not a shocking one.”

Although the economy seems to be expanding again, neither hiring nor the housing marking is expected to recover in the near future.

The foreclosure picture for 2010 is mostly unknown, said Barry Bramlett, chief executive at Equity Depot, who has compiled foreclosure data for 20 years.

“The only clue you really have is what you hear from mortgage bankers or default firms., and there have been so many ‘work-out’ plans, nobody seems to know how many hidden foreclosures there are out there,” he said. “The default firms are saying they don’t see it dropping off anytime soon, unfortunately.”

Something that seems to be picking up steam is commercial foreclosure notices, Bramlett said. While approximately 90 percent of the notices reported are residential, the remainder are commercial, he said.

“We’ve seen more things like hotels, motels, office buildings, theaters and that sort of thing,” he said. “And those things, like a $50 million project, stand out at you when we’re going through the data. There could be more of those to come.”