- November 25, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Property tax delinquencies are in, and this year’s list is much shorter than last year’s. There are 5,224 parcels for which 2010 property taxes remained unpaid as of April 1, the date on which taxes become delinquent, down 17% from 2009.
The 2010 delinquent tax roll totals $6,692,901.26, down an impressive 34.54% from 2009. The decrease represents the second consecutive year of substantial decreases. In two years, the reduction in delinquent taxes was greater than 50%. The number of affected parcels also declined — 20.5% over the same period.
These locally grown, organic statistics came unadulterated from the Flagler County Tax Collector’s office. I can use them with confidence, concluding that fewer Flagler County property owners are under financial stress than two years ago; a promising trend indeed.
Foreclosure data, on the other hand, is not so simple.
One area publication recently ran a story about the sizeable decrease in local foreclosures in April. The story reported that 11 Flagler County homes were repossessed in April vs. 111 in March. The publication, like most regional and national publications, gets its foreclosure data from California-based RealtyTrac.
That same source reported 47 new Flagler County foreclosure filings, the same number as in March. But when I searched the Flagler County clerk’s records, I found 72 new foreclosure filings in April and 76 in March. I also found 36 properties repossessed in April and 153 in March — much higher than RealtyTrac’s statistics. It’s unclear how or where RealtyTrac harvests its data. It is certainly not locally grown. I hesitate to draw any conclusions from it.
In fact, it’s pretty hard to draw any meaningful conclusions from month-to-month foreclosure data, regardless of the source. Without doubt, data over time shows the foreclosure trend is headed in the right direction. I also believe that lenders are increasingly using short sales as a way to rid themselves of nonperforming loans. Short sales take less time and are less costly than lengthy foreclosure procedures, and they remove the risk of ownership from lenders.
Short-term fluctuations in foreclosure filings are the outgrowth of lenders’ and regulators’ ever-changing strategy in dealing with the documentation crisis. Changing rules and strategies often temporarily reduce the number of new filings without affecting the underlying causes of foreclosure. Some, such as Florida’s ineffective mandated mediation, exacerbate the problem.
A few months ago, lenders withdrew masses of foreclosures to review the authenticity of supporting documentation. The documentation problem will be with us a long time. Judicial, regulatory and legislative attempts to solve it will continue to render statistics untrustworthy.
