Columbus Foreclosures activity increases slightly

The number of American households losing their homes to foreclosure rose by 32% in April 2009 compared to the same month last year. Columbus Foreclosures reflected this national trend, albeit at a slower pace.

Columbus is the capital and largest city of the state of Ohio. It is situated in Franklin County, Ohio. It has a population 730,657 and has a robust real estate market.

Surprisingly, the rate of foreclosures in Ohio witnessed a marginal decline while rates for Columbus spiraled.
•    In April 2009, Foreclosures were reported in 12,324 homes in Ohio, a 2% decline over the previous month and five percent over April, 2008. The marginal decline in foreclosure activity in Ohio is reported despite the fact that unemployment hit 9.7% in Ohio.
•    Franklin County reported second highest foreclosures among Ohio counties.
•    Columbus Foreclosures climbed at a faster pace than the state and national average in the first quarter this year. In fact, foreclosure rates rose by 14 % compared to the same period in the previous year
•    Some website which compiles data on U.S. foreclosures reported that over 6075 properties situated in the Columbus vicinity were filed for foreclosure at some stage or other. This amounts to one filing for every 127 Columbus homes, giving it rank 49 among 200 cities in the  nation

In Columbus foreclosures, the crisis is far from over. The new wave of problems besetting the housing and mortgage industry has just been reported. It consists of home owners who are regular on their payments but beginning to question whether it would be wiser to walk away from their loans. The main reason is plummeting value of the properties they have purchased and for which they are repaying high interest loans.

 Walking away from loans is becoming common in Columbus. The problem is that such home owners who want to get rid of their loans and are still not delinquent on their payments are not able to get assistance from mortgage counseling agencies and programs that help persons with delinquent loans.

But some measures have been installed to help those threatened by Columbus Foreclosures. Home owners who are in default can qualify for up to $5000 or three months of mortgage payments whichever is lesser under a state sponsored program. But they have to qualify for some income criteria. Also certain Banks like PNC Financials have put a moratorium on new and pending foreclosures on mortgages held by them.