Working In Neighborhoods released its tenth annual foreclosure study, “A Decade of Foreclosures and the Crisis Continues” on April 30, 2013. The newest foreclosure report provides detailed data on completed Hamilton County foreclosures in 2012 by municipality and neighborhood, and identifies lenders with the largest number of foreclosure sales in the County. The report also presents information on cumulative numbers between 2006 and 2012 and compares foreclosure numbers with the number of housing units by neighborhood to offer additional insight into how the foreclosure crisis has impacted communities, particularly our smaller neighborhoods and municipalities.
WIN began our study of Hamilton County foreclosures a decade ago, reporting 1,372 completed Sheriff’s Sales that year. More than 70 percent occurred within the City of Cincinnati. A decade later, there were 2,931 completed foreclosures in Hamilton County, 63 percent of which occurred outside of the City of Cincinnati.
Compared to 2011, the number of completed Sheriff’s Sales in Hamilton County rose 45.2% in 2012. Since 2006 there have been 19,722 properties sold at Sheriff’s Sale, impacting communities not only because of the vacant homes, but also by displacing families.
While new foreclosure filings were reported to have fallen by 2.7% nationwide in 2012, Ohio’s foreclosure rate increased by 12.8% during that period, placing it in the top ten states with the highest rates of foreclosure. Hamilton County’s rate of new foreclosure filings also rose, though only by 5.7%.
Finally, this year’s report includes three detailed case studies—College Hill, Northside, and Elmwood Place—examining the effect of the ongoing foreclosure crisis at the neighborhood level. A downloadable copy of WIN’s 2012 foreclosure report (as well as reports released in previous years) is available here.
