Property foreclosures drop for third consecutive year

Foreclosures in Erie County dropped nearly 30 percent since 2005. Foreclosure numbers fell for the third consecutive year in Erie County, despite the national subprime mortgage crisis and declining property values elsewhere in the United States. Erie County Clerk Kathy Hochul says that local property owners are faring much better.

"Western New Yorkers, in contrast, have better weathered the economic storm of 2008," said Hochul. "While it is a tragedy for anyone to lose their home, the fourth quarter of 2008 had the lowest number of foreclosures since 2004, and the November total was the lowest number in four years."

"While headlines have been dominated by negative stories chronicling the unprecedented increase in foreclosure rates, nothing matched the actual figures we were monitoring for Erie County," she said.

The drop from 2007 to 2008 was 8 percent, with 1,804 foreclosures filed in 2007 and 1,662 in 2008. The figures released by the County Clerk's Office do not include tax foreclosures.

Hochul, who has been monitoring the statistics since 2003, forecast that the combination of pent-up demand for housing, low interest rates and the stability of the local banking community will make 2009 a successful year in real estate in Erie County.