Ohio: Ranked Seventh in Foreclosures

Posted on January 23rd, 2008 by saman

According to the most recent surveys conducted by Mortgage Research Company,
Ohio ranked a staggering seventh among the top one hundred metropolitan areas that have been a victim of foreclosures. The recent surge in foreclosures cannot be pinned on any one factor rather there are many factors that strived together to bring us in the crisis. Among the cities that got the major share of foreclosures are Lorain, Mentor, Elyria and
Cleveland; combined these four cities saw an astounding 82% of the state’s total foreclosures according to Mortgage Research Company. According to other sources California, Florida and
Ohio contributed a major share of the top 25 cities hit by rising rates of foreclosures. California, ranked among the top 5 in foreclosures contributed 7 cities to the top 25 areas hit by foreclosures while Florida and Ohio pitching in 5 cities each. Other cities that have been hit with high rates of foreclosures in
Ohio State include Columbus, Toledo, Akron and
Dayton.

Homeowners have been struggling to come up with the rising repayments of their mortgages and banks are compelled to foreclose the properties after a series of missed payments. Homeowners and real estate agencies in California and
Ohio were among the top that profited from the booming real estate and housing market; but once the economy showed strong signs of slowing down, these states are among the top contenders for the number of foreclosure filed. These foreclosures are calculated based on the number of households in the metropolitan compared to the number of foreclosures filed. These include the default notices, bank repossessions and auction sale notices.

Stockton filed for the largest number of foreclosures with one foreclosure filing for every 31 households, while
Detroit and Riverside San Bernardino ranked second and third with one for 33 households and one for 43 households respectively. This slump in the housing market has in turn has also made it very hard for the financially broke homebuyers to sell their properties and to come up the repayments for their mortgages. Stockton is a part of California’s
Central Valley that is slumped with new and resale properties. Once booming real estate and housing market has suffered one of the hardest hits in the last thirty years. Researchers in this field argue that it is one of the classic examples of the imbalance between the supply and demand. The experts also believe that this bubble of real estate was to burst in the near future and it might be better to deal with this issue now rather than later. Nevertheless, many disagree especially those that invested their livelihood and life saving in the real estate market.

Homeowners were hit by one storm after another when it was later declared that they had to pay taxes on the short sale of their properties because the
US law saw short sale as a taxable income. This meant that apart from losing your house you were also meant to pay heavy taxes on the remaining amount of the property’s market value. This law was however amended and the taxes on such short sales were forgiven until 2009 hoping that this was a temporary and not a lasting crisis.