Foreclosures remain steady in Tallapoosa

By Katie Cole (Contact) | Alex City Outlook

Published Saturday, September 5, 2009

Home foreclosures remained steady in Tallapoosa County over the summer, while the state of Alabama saw a decrease of about 23 percent.

Alabama had 1,026 homes in some sort of foreclosure in July, according to RealtyTrac, an online company that tracks foreclosures nationwide. Tallapoosa County had 24 repossessed homes from June through August 2009, according to Melanie Tapley, recording clerk for the Tallapoosa County Probate Office.

Dewayne Vandermark, Aliant Bank special assets officer for the Tallapoosa and Montgomery regions, said the shaky economy and high unemployment in the county contributes to the number.

“We seem to have had more this year than we had last year,” Vandermark said. “More homes went in ’09 than in ’08.”

Vandermark said many of their foreclosures have been high-priced spec houses on Lake Martin, houses that were built by contractors and couldn’t be sold.

“A lot of it is around Lake Martin,” Vandermark said. “That’s where all the foreclosures have been centered. At the time they started (building), the market was high. Then they finished these houses early in ‘08 and there were just no buyers.”

Dick Morris, a marketing manager for Regions Bank who works out of Auburn, said spec home foreclosures is common in surrounding areas, including Montgomery County.

Lisa Cleveland, a branch account manager for Citifinancial, said they work with families to keep them in their homes. Their number of home foreclosures has remained steady over the last year.

“It’s probably about the same,” Cleveland said. “It hasn’t changed.”

Vandermark said contractors will have a hard time selling houses until the market turns around, although he has seen a few encouraging signs.

“It’ll eventually bottom out,” Vandermark said. “I noticed in the Prattville and Millbrook area in Elmore County, sales are picking up, although they are selling for less than what the market value is.”

In June through August, Tallapoosa County had 15 home foreclosures in 2007 and 24 each in 2008 and 2009. From January through August, Tallapoosa County had 70 foreclosures in 2008 and 67 in 2009. The county had seven foreclosures in June of this year, nine in July and eight in August.

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