Home foreclosures skyrocketed in Triangle counties in 2003

MORRISVILLE - The perilous combination of unemployment and hefty medical bills simmered to the point last year that it pushed a Morrisville woman to declare bankruptcy and prompted a lender to foreclose on her 2,300-square-foot home.

The woman was shouldering a $2,500 mortgage payment but was bringing in just $1,300 a month in unemployment benefits, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Court documents.

Her townhouse now belongs to Bank One and can be found listed for sale at http://www.foreclosure.com/, an online company aimed at real estate investors.

Buyers will find a range of choices on the site and on the courthouse steps, where foreclosure property is still auctioned off.

About 3,400 people in Wake County got so far behind on their mortgage payments last year that lenders began the process of foreclosing on their homes. That was 30.6 percent more than the number of foreclosure cases reported in Wake County during 2002.

Foreclosures also rose in both Durham and Orange counties last year. The cases primarily consist of home foreclosures, though some commercial activity is collected.

New foreclosures were filed in Wake County at a rate of roughly 9.7 a day between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13 of this year, state records show. At that rate, 3,540 people in Wake would lose their homes this year.

"I think that's a tide I see turning," says Ross Rhudy, senior vice president and general manager for Prudential Carolinas Realty. Wake and Durham counties did trim their foreclosure growth rates last year.

While the scope of the problem was limited to just under 300 cases in Orange County last year, the total marked a 55 percent increase over 2002.

"The good news about this is it's a very tiny fraction of total homeowners," says James F. Smith, a finance professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.