GWINNETT COUNTY: Foreclosures see double-digit jump

Foreclosure notices in Gwinnett County continue to outpace the rate from last year, according to figures released by Equity Depot/Notivus, a property and mortgage loan tracking firm based in Alpharetta.

Data for the current month shows 1,134 notices for Gwinnett properties scheduled to be auctioned by lenders, compared to 992 notices for October 2007, said Mark Sulimirski, chief operating officer for the company.

The number represents a 13 percent increase from last year but is far off the record number of foreclosure notices for September, when 1,357 were filed.

Foreclosure notices reflect the number of properties scheduled to be auctioned by lenders and are not the actual number of homes sold at the monthly foreclosure auction.

People should not read too much into the September-to-October increase, Sulimirski said.

Foreclosure auctions are held on the first Tuesday of the month, he said, and September’s reporting term included five more business days.

“You’ve got a 20 percent increase [in September], just because of the time period increase,” Sulimirski said. “To get relative numbers, you’ve got to compare same time frames or year-to-date, so it kind of levels out.”

So far this year, Gwinnett County has recorded 11,051 foreclosure notices, a 26 percent increase from the same time in 2007.