By Jessica Legge
FAIRMONT — According to the West Virginia Division of Banking’s recent survey, the number of home foreclosures in the state has gone up.
Bob Lamont, general counsel for the Division of Banking, said the study was conducted earlier this year and also during part of last year.
The division has examiners who are on the road investigating banks, nondepository mortgage lenders and brokers, he said. As time permitted, these professionals visited county clerks’ offices to count the foreclosures in the state.
The county-by-county survey provides information on mortgage foreclosures during 2007 and 2008. Information was gathered on the borrower, original lender, property location, date of sale and original loan, the amount of the original note, and other items, Lamont said.
In West Virginia, there were 2,296 mortgage foreclosures in 2007 and the number jumped to 2,577 the following year, which represents a 12 percent increase. Marion County was recorded as having 45 foreclosures in 2007 and 47 last year, for a two-year total of 92.
As for the surrounding counties, Harrison had a total of 200 foreclosures for both years — 92 in 2007 and 108 in 2008 — and Monongalia’s total came to 70 — 28 in 2007 and then 42 in 2008. Taylor County had 24 foreclosures — 12 each year — and Wetzel County had 25 — 10 in 2007 and 15 in 2008.
The survey found that West Virginia state-chartered banks and the national banks stationed in the state made up less than 11 percent of the foreclosure totals for the two years.
“We were happy to see that our community banks were not necessarily making bad loans,” Lamont said.
He pointed out that “not every foreclosure is a sign that there was a predatory loan.” A foreclosure, which is unfortunate for any family, may be the result of a life event that someone has no control over.
Even though the foreclosure numbers have been increasing considerably across the country, West Virginia as a whole has stayed relatively flat, Lamont said.
He said the exception is the Eastern Panhandle, which experienced a significant rise in foreclosures. This area of the state saw more increases in property values and a real estate boom like much of the country, and then a fallout. The remainder of West Virginia, however, has been somewhat immune.
Press reports had indicated that West Virginia and other rural states had very low rates of foreclosures, but it was later discovered that some companies weren’t counting all the statistics in rural areas, Lamont said. As a result, the division decided to gather better data and conducted the survey.
“There really was just no data set out there that would count the foreclosures for every type of lender ... and we just wanted to get an accurate account,” he said.
Lamont said correct data was also necessary because some federal funds, such as those for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, are at least in part dependent upon the foreclosure rate in the state. If foreclosures are severely under-counted, that could cost the state money.
Legislation was passed this session related to the reporting of data for residential mortgage foreclosure sales.
Because of the hardships the West Virginia Division of Banking faced to send its examiners to the various counties, the entity was looking for some sort of mechanism to get the data. The new law — House Bill 3082 — requires county clerks to periodically report the foreclosures, and then the division compiles the information and publishes it online, Lamont said.
“We’ll have accurate data on a yearly basis to see whether the trend is up, down, are there hot spots in the state,” he said.
Lamont said the West Virginia Housing Development Fund expressed interest in knowing where there are greater-than-average foreclosures because they may be able to provide assistance.
E-mail Jessica Legge at jlegge@timeswv.com.
