Despite efforts to combat the glut of foreclosures that have choked New York’s court system and blighted numerous state’s neighborhoods, a new report from the New York comptroller shows that the state’s foreclosure crisis is nowhere close to being resolved – and in many cities, it’s actually getting worse.
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New filings were 43,868 a year ago. “In many places, the situation has continued to get worse”.
Since DiNapoli’s office first reported on the impact of foreclosure activity on local governments in New York back in 2012, the trends in both new foreclosure filings and the number of pending foreclosure cases indicate that foreclosures remain a significant problem in New York seven years after the financial crisis and five years after the nationwide foreclosure peak. “This large pool of properties in legal limbo weighs on local governments’ vitality in many ways, including reducing property values, eroding tax bases and propagating blight”.
According to DiNapoli’s report, foreclosure filings rose rapidly after the housing bubble burst and the recession of 2008-2009 took hold.
The comptroller’s office reports that new filings in New York declined for two years under revised court rules that require lenders to affirm claims to property and not simply produce rote documents. But that was still higher than the 41,201 in pre-recession New York. Also, the number of pending foreclosure cases has tapered off since May 2014, hovering around 92,000 in the last year- about 27 percent higher than in May 2013. New York’s total of 9,981 completed foreclosures for the 12-month period ending June 30, 2015, was sixth among judicial foreclosure states and 16th overall.
Two of the four counties with the highest foreclosure rates were in the lower Hudson Valley: Rockland, where 2.26 percent of housing units are the subject of pending foreclosures; and Putnam, with 2.1 percent.
Some regions of the state are experiencing higher pending foreclosure rates than others.
Click the image below to see a breakdown by county of the state’s foreclosure rates.
Most other regions saw a slower increase.
In January 2013, there were 1,841 cases across the Southern Tier.
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“Under the leadership of Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman, the Judiciary is committed to prioritizing these important cases, and continues to dedicate scarce resources to expediting the foreclosure settlement process while also preserving the rights of all parties throughout the proceedings”, Prudenti wrote in the report.
