Foreclosures and Homes Sales Increased in Lenawee

Home sales and foreclosures in Lenawee are increasing. According to Vicki Daniels who is the Lenawee County Register of Deeds, in the first quarter of this year, the number of new registered warranty deeds reached to 448. It increased by 53 percent from the first quarter of the last year.


The covenant deeds that are often used when banks sell foreclosure properties were increased by 25 percent to 158 this year. On the other hand, despite the 30 percent increase in the home foreclosures, the 280 of the total figure has occurred in April only. Daniels said, "Sales of foreclosed homes are impacting the values of transactions."


She further added, "Some foreclosures are being sold by banks for a fraction of what the original mortgages had been." Martin Marshall who is the county's chief property tax assessor also said, "We are seeing an increase in activity." However, this increase in the real estate market that was facing financial crunch in the recent years is not improving the values of the houses.


Moreover, the tax assessor stated, "Information gathered to date on property sales in the county indicates there will be another reduction in tax assessments for 2011." This year the overall value of the assessed tax was dropped by 4.8 percent in the entire county. The home sales during the period of October 1 last year and September 30th this year, is taken into consideration when assessing each year's tax.


Marshall said, "The measurements we've seen to date, we're still seeing a decline." There are some groundwork will be done and preliminary numbers will be available in the next month to show the increase and decrease of the property values and moreover this will help people to get an idea about the real estate market and this will help them to invest properly. This will also be helpful to find out the tax revenue from the property sales.


According to the chief property tax assessor in the Leenawee County, Martin Marshall, these assessments of the taxes are more likely to follow the existing and future market trends. Therefore, this is the reason that there is no turnaround in the tax revenue that is likely to happen in the future. One thing that concerns the market watchers is the fact that the mortgage loans have gone up than the actual value of the properties.


Moreover, Marshall added, "We don't know what's going to happen out there with people underwater with their mortgages." However, in reports it shows that there was redeeming of the properties in April.