Jackson foreclosure dollars skyrocket

The number of foreclosures in Jackson County for the upcoming April sale date dropped slightly from March, down to 97 from 108. But while the raw count was down, the dollars involved soared for April to a new all-time high of $85.2 million for the month. That is nearly double the amount of foreclosure dollars from the previous record set in January, when $43.5 million was foreclosed.

For the first four months of 2009, nearly $173 million has been foreclosed on in Jackson County, a whopping 286 percent increase over the first four months of 2008.

The jump in values combined with the flattening of the raw count suggests foreclosures are now affecting larger homes and larger tracts of land far beyond the “subprime” market.

April’s count decline was mostly due to 21 last-minute cancellations of foreclosure proceedings by banks, perhaps in anticipation of federal intervention in the foreclosure market.

Although the count was down from the month before, April’s foreclosures in Jackson County are more than twice the number from April 2008, which had only 45 foreclosures.

For the first four months of 2009, there have been 356 foreclosure proceedings in Jackson County, up 17 percent from the first four months of 2008.