Mortgage foreclosures likely to continue for years
David Czurak

Residential foreclosures in Kent County have totaled 18,710 from 2004 through the first quarter of this year. In other words, 10.4 percent of the county’s 180,737 homes have been foreclosed on over the past 7.25 years.

That stunning and depressing news came last week from Gustavo Rotondaro, the interim director of the Community Research Center at Grand Valley State University. CRC is tracking mortgage foreclosures in the nine cities, 21 townships, and five villages in the county.

There have been 733 foreclosures in the first three months of this year, with 300 of those having occurred in Grand Rapids, 146 in Wyoming and 47 in Kentwood, accounting for two-thirds of all foreclosures in the county over the first quarter of 2011.

“Many are happening in the inner city, as you might expect. But it’s also happening in the suburbs,” Rotondaro said. “Kentwood, Wyoming and Grand Rapids are going through a lot of changes in their housing markets.”

Seventy-one percent of all mortgage foreclosures in Kent County since 2004 have taken place in those three cities, which account for 49 percent of the housing units in the county. Kent has 180,737 homes, while the trio of cities has 88,977. Grand Rapids has had 8,857 foreclosures the past seven-plus years, which is 16 percent of its total housing stock. Wyoming has had 3,119 homes foreclosed, or 14.5 percent of all its homes, over the same timeframe. Kentwood has had 1,263 for 10.4 percent.

On a percentage basis, the county’s smallest areas have also been hit hard by the foreclosure process. The villages of Casnovia, Kent City, Sand Lake and Sparta have respectively had 16.7 percent, 17.4 percent, 22.8 percent and 14.9 percent of homes foreclosed. In contrast, East Grand Rapids, Byron Township, and Cascade Township all were under 4 percent.

The years with the most foreclosures have been 2008 with 3,523; 2007 with 3,236; and 2010 with 3,217. Those three years accounted for 9,976 foreclosures, or 53 percent of the 7.25-year total of 18,710. The years with the least foreclosures were 2004 with 1,134 and 2005 with 1,367.

Rotondaro told county commissioners last week that every city and township in the county had an increase in the number of vacant housing units in 2010. In seven of those municipalities, however, he said the number of empty homes had doubled over the last 11 years.

The five municipalities that recorded the highest percentage increase in vacant homes from 2000-2010 were Alpine Township (129 percent), Grand Rapids Township (127 percent), Gaines Township (124 percent), Lowell Township (113 percent) and Wyoming (107 percent). As for Grand Rapids, half of the city’s 32 neighborhoods had doubled the number of empty houses by the end of last year.

Rotondaro said in 2000 there were 11,110 vacant homes in the county, which is 8 percent of all housing units. But at the end of last year, he said that number grew to 19,662 for an increase of 77 percent since 2000. Rotondaro added that 957 foreclosed homes are in redemption, meaning owners are trying to work out new mortgages with lenders. “Very few of these are redeemed by owners,” he said, adding that most mortgage holders here are large banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Kym Spring, who directs Foreclosure Response, a nonprofit foreclosure intervention organization, said it is likely the number of foreclosed houses in the county will remain high for at least the next two years and possibly for five more years. Spring noted that Home Repair Services has kept 500 homeowners out of foreclosure. She also said her organization will likely remain intact for another year before turning the intervention reins over to a different organization, perhaps even to the county.

“At this point, I think the community would appreciate the county taking on a more intense, or leadership, role in this,” said Spring, who was honored in April by the Fair Housing Center for her efforts in the foreclosure crisis. Spring added that the county’s Community Development Department, headed by director Linda Likely, has participated with her organization on a regular basis.

In a related matter, commissioners allocated nearly $2.3 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development last week to 14 local service providers that include Home Repair Services, Community Rebuilders, the Salvation Army, Disability Advocates and Hope Network. Home Repair Services will use some of its funds for foreclosure intervention. HUD made the award to the Community Development Department.