Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

People still losing homes; foreclosures up in Madison, St. Clair counties

More metro-east residents are filing for foreclosure.

The latest statistics from the St. Clair County circuit clerk's office revealed that the number of foreclosures filed jumped to 157 last month.

In Madison County, 128 foreclosures were filed in October.

Both counties had witnessed a slowdown in foreclosures in the spring, when 26 were filed in St. Clair County in May and 41 in Madison County that same month. Since then, foreclosure rates have been gradually rising.

In Glen Carbon, Greater Gateway Association of Realtors Executive Director Al Suguitan said he believes that the metro-east housing market will improve, but foreclosure rates will remain high into next year as consumer confidence remains low.

"We're on the long haul of recovering," Suguitan said. "The foreclosures are still going to be with us, unfortunately, and it may be another year before we start to see those numbers descend."

"I have to agree with that, also," said Deb Campbell, who as president of the Realtors Association of Southwest Illinois, oversees real estate activity in St. Clair County. "My other thought is that at the beginning of the year, we had a moratorium on foreclosures so people could have a chance, but not all of them have been able to get their home back."

Illinois Association of Realtors spokeswoman Mary Schaefer said high unemployment across the state also has been a factor. In citing research by the University of Illinois, she said the state is down by 424,000 jobs since November 2000.

"Looking at those factors, they definitely have an impact on the numbers," Schaefer said. "We expect some uptick in jobs created and in jobs activity, but that will also depend on what the economic stimulus puts in place later this year by Congress."

She also said talk of extending the $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit past this month and to other home buyers would also help. This was rolled out earlier this year and is set to expire by Nov. 30.

But time may have run out already. Securing financing can take 30 days, but Donn Schaefer believes he can still help.

Schaefer, the owner of Home Seller Solutions Inc. in Belleville and former president of the Metro-East Real Estate Investors Association, said he can still help a buyer qualify for the tax rebate through "owner financing." He rents and sells houses in and around Belleville, Fairview Heights, O'Fallon and Collinsville. Through owner financing, Schaefer said he can help buyers by serving as the lender and process the sale in a week.

"What happened recently is people cannot get home loans approved now because it's too close to Nov. 30," Schaefer said. "What I'm doing is helping people with the option of owner financing."