Foreclosure discount is high
Homes held by lenders sell for 52% less in Lucas County
2/25/2011
A foreclosed home in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, sits waiting for auction.
Lucas County was even worse. The sales discount rate of foreclosed homes last year was 52 percent in the county, up from 49 percent in 2009, according to a new report by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure data firm based in Irvine, Calif.
The average sale price of foreclosed homes in the county was $52,577, down from $56,074 in 2009. The 1,626 foreclosed homes sold last year in Lucas County comprised 31 percent of all home sales.
In Ohio, foreclosed homes accounted for nearly 23 percent of all home sales last year. And the foreclosure sale discount rate decreased last year from 47 percent the year before, but Ohio was still far higher than the U.S. rate of 28 percent, the RealtyTrac report shows. Overall, there were 28,594 foreclosed homes sold in 2010 in Ohio, a 38 percent drop from 2009, the report says.
"I'm not shocked by our market, but I'm shocked that we're worse than other markets," said Realtor Jon Modene, of Re/Max Masters Co. in Perrysburg. "I guess it's emblematic of our times."
Ohio's woes stem from a time lag in getting homes foreclosed and sold. In that period, vandals strip homes of copper and other metals to sell for scrap.
"They sit empty, they sit cold, they get vandalized. … All of that knocks the value down 40 or 50 percent," he said.
The sales discount rate of foreclosed homes elsewhere in northwest Ohio last year was 47 percent in Allen County, 46 percent in Defiance, 34 percent in Erie, 23 percent in Fulton, 43 percent in Hancock, 48 percent in Henry, 26 percent in Ottawa, 38 percent in Paulding, 37 percent in Sandusky, 49 percent in Seneca, and 26 percent in Wood. In southeast Michigan, the discount rate last year was 19 percent in Monroe County.
Contact Jon Chavez at: jchavez@theblade.com or 419-724-6128.