Metro Atlanta foreclosure notices drop

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The total number of foreclosure notices was down for February in 13 metro Atlanta counties, a drop expected in part because January had more days in its counting period.

The 7,743 notices in February shows a continuing high trend where numbers that are double what they used to be in a good economic year have become the new normal.

"We have found there is quite a bit of consistency over the last year," Barry Bramlett, the CEO of Kennesaw's Equity Depot, which compiles the numbers,

There were  9,452 notices in the count that began in December and ended in early January. The average monthly count in 2011 was 9,129 for the region, according to Equity Depot's numbers. Last year's  high was 10,848 in February and the low was 7,454 in December.

There were 109,548 notices in metro Atlanta last year, and 127,140 in 2010.

Gwinnett County had the most notices last month as usual, with 1,622. A notice does not necessarily end in foreclosure, as lenders may fail to foreclose or continue working with borrowers to find ways to get them back on track.

Fulton followed Gwinnett with 1,360 notices. Every county followed the downward trend this month.

The lowering trend  is being depressed by legal and business problems. Legally, many large lenders slowed the foreclosure process while they dealt with the "robo-signing" crisis, where forged or falsified foreclosure documents were being used to foreclose on homeowners.  Also slowing the rate is the limitation by lenders of  the number of foreclosures they complete as they wish to avoid flooding the market.

"Most, including us, feel the number of foreclosures are being controlled at this level for now," Bramlett said.

But there are still many unknowns in the market that make it difficult to predict where it is headed.

"We’ll have to see what the year brings, I'm not sure anyone knows," Bramlett said.

Foreclosure notices

County Jan. Feb.

Bartow 167 150

Cherokee 403 332

Clayton 840 689

Cobb 1,059 874

DeKalb 1,483 1,182

Douglas 354 296

Fayette 155 116

Forsyth 257 214

Fulton 1,754 1,360

Gwinnett 1,868 1,622

Hall 322 239

Henry 575 485

Rockdale 215 184