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Published Thursday, November 05, 2009 in Local

Coweta foreclosures ease up

By Jeff Bishop

The Times-Herald

For the second straight month, the number of foreclosure-related advertisements in The Times-Herald has dropped.

There are 185 foreclosures in the legal advertisements section of the Times-Herald today, which is the lowest number of foreclosure ads since July 2009, when there were 169 foreclosure ads placed, and the lowest percentage increase in a year.

There were 207 foreclosure-related ads placed in October, and a record 265 placed in September. This month's number represents a 30.1 percent drop from the high two months ago.

And there's more good news. Duane Fields, head of the environmental health division of the Coweta County Health Department, reported at Tuesday's Coweta Board of Health meeting that the numbers of development-related permits are up when compared to November of last year.

"They're not up a lot, but any increase is welcome to us," he said.

"This is the first time I've been able to stand up here and say that in quite some time," said Fields.

The environmental health division conducted 49 site evaluations between Sept. 1 and Oct. 28, 2009, compared to 37 evaluations conducted during the same period one year ago.

There were 41 on-site sewage permits issued, compared to 33 issued one year ago.

"The numbers at this point are pretty stable," he said, although still way down from their highs several years ago.

"Banks are letting go of some of the money to the people who can really use it," said Fields. "And some people are refinancing, too."

There's clearly still much ground to make up before anyone can claim that there's been any kind of recovery. The number of foreclosure-related advertisements is still up over this time a year ago.

In November 2008, there were 166 foreclosure-related advertisements placed in The Times-Herald, and there were only 116 placed in November 2007 -- a 59 percent increase in two years.

Also, Coweta County's unemployment rate is still hovering in the double-digits. Coweta County had an unemployment rate of 10.0 in September, the most recent month for which data is available.

Coweta County -- like the rest of Georgia -- has a very big hole to dig itself out of, economist Joey Smith said during his recent economic forecast given at the University of West Georgia in Carrollton.

"During 2008 and thus far in 2009, new housing construction activity has plummeted in Coweta County," Smith said.

"In 2008, a total of 451 single-family housing units were permitted in the county, a decline of 59.7 percent from the previous year's activity," he said.

The downturn has continued unabated during 2009, said Smith.

"During the first eight months of 2009, the county issued 170 single-family permits, down 53 percent from the 359 permits issued during the same period in 2008," Smith said.

No multi-family units have been permitted in 2009, he said.

"Like the other counties in the West Georgia region, Coweta County has been hit hard by the current recession," Smith said.

Based on data in the most recent Atlanta Home Sales Report, sales of both new homes and resale homes declined sharply here in 2008, he said.

"New home sales were down over 50 percent for the year, while the number of resale homes sold fell by about 28 percent," he said.

The median price of a new home sold in Coweta County was almost a percent lower in 2008 compared to 2007, he said. The median price of resale homes plummeted by 6.6 percent in 2008.

And "the weakness in the housing and commercial property markets has had a devastating impact on Coweta County's financial institutions," Smith said, with the failure of two local banks topping the list.

Manufacturing employment has also been hit hard in Coweta County -- it's down 11 percent between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Still, Smith expects Coweta County's unemployment numbers to remain a bit better than those in other counties in the region for some time to come.

"Although not counted in Coweta's employment numbers, the availability of jobs outside the county should help keep the county's unemployment rate lower than the regional and state average over the next few years," he said.

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Here are the foreclosure advertisement numbers for Coweta County for the past year:

Dec. 2008 -- 126 (up from 118 in 2007, or 6.7 percent).

Jan. 2009 -- 176 (up from 156 in 2008, or 12.8 percent).

Feb. 2009 -- 153 (up from 123 in 2008, or 24.3 percent).

March 2009 -- 216 (up from 128 in 2008, or 68.75 percent).

April 2009 -- 182 (up from 145 in 2008, or 25 percent).

May 2009 -- 176 (up from 128 in 2008, or 37.5 percent).

June 2009 -- 253 (up from 125 in 2008, or 102.4 percent).

July 2009 -- 169 (up from 136 in 2008, or 24 percent).

Aug. 2009 -- 196 (up from 137 in 2008, or 43 percent).

Sept. 2009 -- 265 (up from 177 in 2008, or 49.7 percent).

Oct. 2009 -- 207 (up from 142 in 2008, or 45.77 percent).

Nov. 2009 -- 185 (up from 166 in 2008, or 11 percent).

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