The number of foreclosure filings and homes going to sheriff’s sale is climbing in York County.
The York County Sheriff’s Office is listing 261 properties for sheriff’s sale on April 16. That’s up from 227 newly listed properties during the April 2011 sheriff’s sale.
It’s also an increase from 185 new properties listed for the February sheriff’s sale, when 103 properties sold. In February 2011, 86 of 239 listed properties sold at sheriff’s sale.
Homes go to sheriff’s sale when, generally after months in foreclosure, homeowners can’t satisfy their lenders.
Last year, sheriff sales fell from 1,821 to 1,240, a 31.9 percent decrease.
The number of foreclosure filings
also decreased significantly
between 2010 and 2011, from 2,080 to 1,239.
But they’re on the increase for the first two months of 2012, according to numbers provided by York County Prothonotary Pam Lee.
The number of filings Lee processed for York County increased slightly when January of 2012 is compared to January 2011, from 127 to 131 filings. But foreclosures increased by nearly 70 percent when February was compared. The number grew from 102 in February 2011 to 173 filings last month.
Lee said the increases are due to banks working through backlogs of properties up for foreclosures.
“They had such a backlog of homes, they could not buy them all or sell them, so that delayed the (foreclosures),” she said. “They couldn’t process the houses
quickly enough. But that’s changing, and you’re going to see the foreclosure numbers creep up throughout the year.”
Lee said that some banks process foreclosures quickly, while others wait at least a year before moving to complete the foreclosure process. Some foreclosures are canceled as homeowners and mortgage companies work out options, she said.
What’s happening? Jessica Fieldhouse, managing director of the nonprofit housing counseling agency Housing Alliance of York,
agreed that the number of sheriff’s sales is probably increasing because there’s a backlog of foreclosures.
Fieldhouse said her organization has counseled people who have been in foreclosure for 48 months before the lender finally pulls the trigger.
“We have people who haven’t heard from their lenders in years,” she said. “It’s nerve-racking for them, but they’re basically living for free.”
One reason for the delay was a “robo-signing” scandal, in which the federal government cracked down on lenders who were pushing foreclosures through so fast that they weren’t following the necessary procedures.
“Those issues have been worked out now, and a settlement has been reached,” she said. “We’ll make our way through the
backlog nationwide, and it’s just a matter of how long it will take to get through that.”
She said a majority of her office’s current caseload is foreclosure-related, and counselors are booking about four weeks out for appointments.
— Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5436, ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com, or follow her on Twitter at @YDYorkCounty.