Statewide, the number of foreclosures increased 33 percent to 9,757 filings in October.
The reason for a spike in foreclosures isn’t always clear, said Jerome Vinson, president of the board of realtors in Clark and Champaign County.
But he said it’s not a surprise, as lenders occasionally release a large number of homes onto the market throughout the year.
Overall, Vinson said there are pockets of demand in the region for homes, but the economy is still making some buyers and sellers reluctant to move forward with sales.
“The economy still weighs heavily on people’s minds as far as pulling the trigger on buying a house,” Vinson said.
This time of year is traditionally less busy than others for home buyers as the holidays approach, Vinson said.
Foreclosures may be on the rise as lenders try to take advantage of strong demand for homes, particularly from investors, said Daren Blomquist, vice president of RealtyTrac.
“Lenders likely are moving these properties more rapidly to the public auction given that there is strong demand from institutional buy-to-rent investors at the auction and that rising home prices mean more of the loan losses can be recouped, either by selling to an investor at the auction or by repossessing the property and reselling as bank-owned,” Blomquist said.
The Dayton area also saw a significant bump in the number of foreclosures, with 910 actions that included default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions compared to 600 in September. In the Dayton area, one in every 423 homes faced some sort of foreclosure action in the last month.
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