Foreclosures in Wisconsin Continue To Rise

August 13th, 2008

Foreclosures in Wisconsin continue to rise during the month of July, which was up by 31% in the first seven months of 2008, over that of the first seven months of 2007. 88% of Wisconsin’s seventy-two Counties have registered an increase in number of foreclosure through July over that of the same period last year, only 4% had the same number of filings and surprisingly 8% rewiscorded less than the number of filings that of last year. The state had 1,762 foreclosure filings in July 2008 that was nearly 77 houses being foreclosed each business day.

The ForeclosuresWl.com showed nearly 14,300 foreclosure filings this year in Wisconsin. Robert Jenson, President of ForeclosuresWl.com said the number of foreclosure had been built up over the past three years. He further stated that Wisconsin on an average registered 11,687 foreclosure filings each year from 2003 to 2005 which went up to 16,473 in 2006 and 20,995 in 2007.If the pace of the foreclosure filings remained the same the state would end up at 25,000 foreclosure filings at the end of the year. Jenson anticipated little respite in the soaring foreclosure rates in 2008 and expected real estate market trends to improve only after 2010.

Milwaukee County continued to post the highest number of foreclosure filings in the state with 3,565 foreclosure filings in July 2008 alone, marking an increase of 28% over the figures of July 2007. Dane County foreclosures increased 54% and in July alone, 710 foreclosures had been filed in the county.

The blitz of foreclosure filings wreaked havoc throughout south central Wisconsin during the month of July 2008. An 89% rise was found in Sauk County with 198 filings compared to 105 during the same period last year; Jefferson County recorded 71% more than last year with 185 foreclosure filings this year compared to 108 last year; Columbia County filed for 183 foreclosure this year while it was 128 in 2007, an increase by 43%; Green County filed 91 foreclosure to 67foreclosure filings last year and Dodge County had 236foreclosure filings during this year compared to 174 filings of last year. Both the Counties foreclosure filings had increased by 36%. Rock County foreclosure filings were up by 27% with 501 cases of foreclosure filings this year and 395 foreclosures filed last year.

Jenson remarked that the mortgage crisis related to the adjustable-rate and the sub-prime lending policy was mainly responsible for the up swing in foreclosure filing trend.