One hundred twenty-five writs of execution – the last step before a foreclosed home goes up for Sheriff’s sale – have been filed in Wayne County through the first half of 2008. The total matches the number of filings for all of 2007.

“And we’re only in July,” said Linda Billard, chief clerk of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department.

Neighboring Pike County had 250 homes go to Sheriff’s sale this year, that’s about 35 ahead of the same time last year, says Debbie Runnalls, real estate clerk in the Pike County Sheriff’s Office. In all, Pike County had 488 homes go to sale in 2007.
The looming foreclosures appear to be more reflective of the struggles of state and national mortgage lenders than local banks as Billard reported only one of the 125 homes has paper held by a local bank.

Local banks paint a fairly stable picture on their home mortgages. Local Realtors also say the local housing market is stable, although homes are taking three to four months to sell compared to one or two months in 2005 and 2006.

 Wayne Bank President Bill Davis, says they have no foreclosures pending in Wayne County and have a small one in Pike and another in Monroe County. He said their mortgage delinquency rate for residential mortgages is less than 1/4 of one percent for mortgages 30 days past due.

Davis says the sub-prime foreclosure crisis can be laid at the feet of  big money center banks and investment houses who made loans that, “really weren’t prudent for the borrower.” Davis says payments made by the borrowers weren’t even covering interest.  “The value of the home is worth less than what they paid. The mortgage is more than the original amount, so they’re really in a box,” he said.

Honesdale National Bank Vice President Mark Graziadio says, “We don’t have any (mortgage foreclosures) right now in our books. We service a number of secondary market mortgages and we’re not seeing a significant uplift in delinquent mortgages there.”
 Graziadio says they know their customers and would never put them in a loan that wasn’t right for them. When it comes to the national problem, Graziadio says, “You have people in loans who shouldn’t have been there to start out with. That’s really the crux of the crisis at this point.” Like in Florida, where a man told Graziadio there are 52 foreclosures in his hometown. “What were (lenders) doing? They were lending more than they should have. They got people into loans that weren’t structured right for the people. And they did it just so they could generate mortgages ...or so they could sell real estate,” Graziadio said.

Paul Meagher, Sr., founder and co-owner of RE/MAX of Wayne County along with son Tim, say if homes are priced right and marketed right, they sell. Meagher says the 2005/2006 seller’s market has become the 2008 buyer’s market. “It’s a great time to buy because interest rates are still low. And if you’re credit is in order, they’re still willing to give you good rates and long term mortgages,” he said.
Meagher, Sr., says they only have three foreclosure listings out of 212 total listings in their office: two in Wayne County and one in Pike County (none from local banks).

The economy
Christopher Bresset, Retail Lending Manager for HNB, says, “The key factor now is going to be the economy. You have a lot of things going on with the increase in pricing on almost everything across the board. It’s not just gas. It’s not just groceries. It’s everything. And people aren’t getting ...raises, an increase in income to support that at this point.”

“Inflation is a concern now. With all of those prices going up and the fact that people aren’t making more money, then the cost is now out-gaining your increase in income. And if you’re not making at least what the inflation rate is, then you’re falling behind,” Graziadio said.