By Sarah Morin, for The Times-Mail
smorin@heraldt.com
Indiana, Michigan and Ohio have led the country in home foreclosures since 2001.
"We are just surrounded by the issue of foreclosure in Indiana," said Bonnie Boards, vice president and home ownership preservation officer for Chase bank. She shared the information earlier this month at a local League of Women Voters panel discussion on the problem.
The piece of advice from all five panelists?
Make a phone call if you're having a payment problem to prevent foreclosure. The key is not to avoid the problem - it will only get worse.
In Monroe County, 291 foreclosures were listed on www.realtytrac.com, an online real estate marketplace.
The breakdown of the listed foreclosures is: 15 properties (pre-foreclosure); 141 properties (auction); 93 properties (bank-owned); 3 properties (government-owned); 33 properties (for sale by owner); 6 properties (new homes).
Foreclosures and mortgage fraud affect anyone who pays property taxes - not just those who lose their homes, according to experts.
To prevent future foreclosures, several changes are being proposed in Indiana, from creating a Realtor commission that could take quick action by suspending a license to rewriting the language in the warranty deed that would state everyone involved in the transaction.
Those recommendations were shared during the panel discussion by Gary Avery, vice president of First Republic Mortgage Corp., and Donna Eide, adjunct professor at Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, who are looking at how to crack down on mortgage fraud through state regulation.
In the past two years, Chase has increased its mortgage staff three times. A national hot line for Chase customers brings in 1,300 calls a month.
"We don't want your home, but we'll take your home," Boards said of Chase at one point during the panel discussion at the Monroe County Public Library.
The point of the panel was to discuss how to prevent that from ever happening.
That means watching out for improper loan servicing, inflated appraisals and fees.
Eide called mortgage fraud the "silent killer" and said it is responsible for probably 20 percent of the high number of foreclosures in Indiana.
It's tough to prosecute. Often by the time the fraud is caught the property is already in foreclosure, and the homeowner is left with nothing.
So Eide and Avery want to consolidate mortgage-type services into one agency to provide better service, consistency and a tracking method to investigate and prosecute.
But before it reaches that point, panelists suggest being smart with your finances and knowing when to ask for help if you need it.
"The sooner the better. (When) the sheriff's sale notice is on your door, it's a little too late," said Marilyn Patterson, program manager, Housing and Neighborhood Development department.
The department offers free counseling and reviews different options for people struggling with their mortgages, and helps decide which works best for the homeowner.