Distressed property listings surged by 29 percent in Columbus, Georgia in February this year, according to legal notices filed in the city courthouse for the March 2 foreclosure auction.
A total of 146 properties have been listed for the March 2 auction, a jump from the 113 homes listed in January for the February auction and an increase of 100 percent compared to the number of properties listed for the February auction last year.
Home values in Columbus also declined last year by 3.6 percent, as foreclosures and other economic difficulties put a downward pressure on price levels.
However, according to Columbus real estate professional Howard Jefferson, any increase in foreclosures in the city in the coming months will be absorbed by an increased demand for homes. He contended that the federal tax credits and the expected increase in number of buyers from military families from Fort Knox in Kentucky will help the Columbus housing market handle foreclosures.
Another report, however, released by a California-based real estate information firm, showed that there are currently 451 bank-owned houses for sale in the city. Columbus realtors reiterated that not all properties foreclosed on actually move on to the scheduled auctions. They said that a lot of homeowners are able to work out modified monthly payments to save their homes from distressed property listings.
Columbus was not the only Georgia city hit with increased foreclosures. Atlanta, the center of economic activity in Georgia, experienced a sharper spike in foreclosure filings in February.
According to Alpharetta-based Equity Depot, over 10,300 households in metro Atlanta received foreclosure notices in February, up by 27 percent from almost 8,200 notices last month.
In 2009, metro Atlanta posted nearly 79,000 foreclosure filings, representing almost 4 percent of all households in the region and marking an 18-percent increase from filings in 2008.
Statewide and nationwide, foreclosure activity slowed down in January compared to the previous month, based on data compiled by a California-based real estate information provider. In Georgia, foreclosure filings dropped by more than 13 percent to 11,274 filings, including 6,725 foreclosure sale notices, but total filings in January this year were still higher by 14 percent compared to filings in January 2009.
Despite the decreased foreclosure rate, Georgia was still among the top ten U.S. states struggling from foreclosures. With almost 4,600 homes already in distressed property listings in January, Georgia ranked tenth among the states in foreclosure activity.
John Cutts has been educated in the finer points of the foreclosure market over 5 years.
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