If any persuasion is needed, new figures on home mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure filings emphasize that Ohio cannot sit idle. This crisis is not abating. That reality should spur lawmakers to pull together — and soon — promising proposals that would begin to repair the damaging impact of home losses and abandoned properties.
It is distressing that after a decade of rising foreclosures, especially acute the past five years, Ohio still struggles to get ahead of the problem. Year by year, new foreclosure filings top the previous year's figures. The Ohio Supreme Court's report this month on new filings showed the trend held in 2009, new cases rising 3.8 percent since 2008. In Summit County, new filings rose 12.6 percent, the highest increase among the state's large urban counties.
Worrisome, too, are the indications that the upward trend will hold for 2010. Home mortgage delinquency rates are rising, early indicators of foreclosures to come. Loans that are 90 days past due are increasing at the fastest rate. According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, 15 percent of mortgage loans in Ohio were either past due or in foreclosure by September last year. Defaults on prime loans have risen significantly, the crisis expanding beyond the initial waves of subprime delinquencies. Further, the $75 billion federal program to assist distressed borrowers has been not been up to the task, a national review concluded last month.
In short, if Ohio is to corral foreclosures, it must find its own remedies. Fortunately, there is no shortage of proposals deserving legislative approval to better protect borrowers, regulate loan service companies, beef up prevention programs such as mediation and counseling and help local governments address the vexing problem of abandoned properties.
House Bill 3, for instance, would require home-loan servicers to issue a 60-day notice to borrowers before a foreclosure filing. It also would bar the companies from practices such as undisclosed fees and initiating foreclosures without proof of ownership. The oversight is critical and should include the virtually unregulated servicer affiliates of banks that originate home loans. Instructive is the disappointing show of the federal program. Loan servicers and lenders have been so slow in working out troubled loans that federal officials felt compelled to launch a ''name and shame'' list.
Rental properties represent about 30 percent to 40 percent of Ohio foreclosures. House Bill 9 would extend to renters a degree of security they don't have under current law. The bill would require landlords or clerks of court to give renters 60-day notice when a rental property is foreclosed. It also would convert current agreements to monthly leases, giving tenants a more reasonable time to relocate than the three days currently permitted after a sheriff's sale.
Financing the steps urgently needed to tame the crisis is no less a challenge. It is crucial to strengthen the tools for foreclosure prevention — most important, counseling services, which have proved most effective in guiding borrowers through the complex home financing and foreclosure processes. Court mediation programs also must receive support.
Disappointingly, the White House did not include Ohio among five states it named Friday to receive $1.5 billion in new federal assistance. All the more important, then, for Ohio to create a funding stream — as H.B. 3 proposes with a $750 fee on foreclosure filings — to support severely underfunded activities, including housing counseling and local programs to bank and redevelop vacant and abandoned properties.
Legislators must move quickly to stem foreclosures, discarding the misguided proposal for a six-month foreclosure moratorium. Such a step would stall momentum. There once was an argument for a moratorium when the housing market was in free fall, offering borrowers breathing space. Now the landscape has changed, requiring sharper tools to handle the foreclosure crisis.
If any persuasion is needed, new figures on home mortgage delinquencies and foreclosure filings emphasize that Ohio cannot sit idle. This crisis is not abating. That reality should spur lawmakers to pull together — and soon — promising proposals that would begin to repair the damaging impact of home losses and abandoned properties.
It is distressing that after a decade of rising foreclosures, especially acute the past five years, Ohio still struggles to get ahead of the problem. Year by year, new foreclosure filings top the previous year's figures. The Ohio Supreme Court's report this month on new filings showed the trend held in 2009, new cases rising 3.8 percent since 2008. In Summit County, new filings rose 12.6 percent, the highest increase among the state's large urban counties.
Worrisome, too, are the indications that the upward trend will hold for 2010. Home mortgage delinquency rates are rising, early indicators of foreclosures to come. Loans that are 90 days past due are increasing at the fastest rate. According to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, 15 percent of mortgage loans in Ohio were either past due or in foreclosure by September last year. Defaults on prime loans have risen significantly, the crisis expanding beyond the initial waves of subprime delinquencies. Further, the $75 billion federal program to assist distressed borrowers has been not been up to the task, a national review concluded last month.
In short, if Ohio is to corral foreclosures, it must find its own remedies. Fortunately, there is no shortage of proposals deserving legislative approval to better protect borrowers, regulate loan service companies, beef up prevention programs such as mediation and counseling and help local governments address the vexing problem of abandoned properties.
House Bill 3, for instance, would require home-loan servicers to issue a 60-day notice to borrowers before a foreclosure filing. It also would bar the companies from practices such as undisclosed fees and initiating foreclosures without proof of ownership. The oversight is critical and should include the virtually unregulated servicer affiliates of banks that originate home loans. Instructive is the disappointing show of the federal program. Loan servicers and lenders have been so slow in working out troubled loans that federal officials felt compelled to launch a ''name and shame'' list.
Rental properties represent about 30 percent to 40 percent of Ohio foreclosures. House Bill 9 would extend to renters a degree of security they don't have under current law. The bill would require landlords or clerks of court to give renters 60-day notice when a rental property is foreclosed. It also would convert current agreements to monthly leases, giving tenants a more reasonable time to relocate than the three days currently permitted after a sheriff's sale.
Financing the steps urgently needed to tame the crisis is no less a challenge. It is crucial to strengthen the tools for foreclosure prevention — most important, counseling services, which have proved most effective in guiding borrowers through the complex home financing and foreclosure processes. Court mediation programs also must receive support.
Disappointingly, the White House did not include Ohio among five states it named Friday to receive $1.5 billion in new federal assistance. All the more important, then, for Ohio to create a funding stream — as H.B. 3 proposes with a $750 fee on foreclosure filings — to support severely underfunded activities, including housing counseling and local programs to bank and redevelop vacant and abandoned properties.
Legislators must move quickly to stem foreclosures, discarding the misguided proposal for a six-month foreclosure moratorium. Such a step would stall momentum. There once was an argument for a moratorium when the housing market was in free fall, offering borrowers breathing space. Now the landscape has changed, requiring sharper tools to handle the foreclosure crisis.
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