The number of property foreclosures in Allegheny County hit a new high in recent months.
RealStats, a South Side-based real estate information company, said figures it released Wednesday show the county completed 848 foreclosures from July through September -- an 8.9 percent increase from 779 foreclosures in the same quarter a year ago, and a whopping 41.3 percent hike from the previous three months.
That latest total may not be the peak in local foreclosures.
"You are going to see a steady rise," Sgt. Richard Fersch of the Allegheny County Sheriff's Department said yesterday, citing high fuel prices and lending industry troubles, along with the area's many older residents who struggle to pay property taxes.
The RealStats figures include mortgage-related foreclosures and sales of tax delinquent residential or commercial properties. Before the most recent quarter, Allegheny County's previous high was 818 foreclosures from April through June 2006, RealStats said.
Looking at Allegheny and four nearby counties, foreclosures actually were down 2.1 percent from a year ago to 1,265 for the third quarter. Butler and Washington counties had a combined drop of 119, offsetting increases in Allegheny.
Nearly 62 percent -- or 522 -- of Allegheny County's total foreclosures for July through September were for houses and other properties in McKeesport, Penn Hills and Wilkinsburg along with four Pittsburgh wards, the 19th, 20th, 26th and 27th, generally the northernmost and southwestern sections of the city.
Marlene Thrower, a seasonal construction worker, almost lost her home in Penn Hills last month, but arranged a payment plan with her mortgage company in time to head off a scheduled sale.
The single mother raising two grandchildren said an adjustable rate mortgage pushed her payments from $477 to $657, and would have sent them to $857 if she hadn't reworked her loan terms with the help of the East Liberty-based Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.
RealStats Vice President Daniel A. Murrer said local foreclosure numbers make it tough to draw trends, because they rise and fall from quarter to quarter.
Still, Irvine, Calif.-based RealtyTrac Inc. reported that foreclosures were up nearly 100 percent nationwide in the third quarter compared to a year ago, so Pittsburgh appears to be bucking the national trend, the local firm said.
National City Bank economist Ryan Reed said Pennsylvania seems to be in step with the nationwide pattern, according to other figures from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
In the year's second quarter, foreclosure actions were initiated on an average of 0.7 percent of outstanding mortgages nationwide, about 1 of every 143, the association said. The state's rate was 0.6 percent, or about 1 of every 167 mortgages.
Pennsylvania's proportion of subprime loans is nearly a mirror image of national numbers, Reed said, and this likely accounts for the similar foreclosure figures.
Fersch said the number of filed foreclosures turned over to the Allegheny County sheriff varies, though September always is the busiest month.
Of the 405 cases handled this month, he said, almost all represented mortgage troubles and about 40 were for unpaid taxes. Many are settled before the properties have to be sold, he said.
As to the foreclosure picture over the next several months, National City's Reed said numbers of mortgages with payments past due are at historically high levels. "That would tend to indicate there is more to come," he said.
Pennsylvania property owners with loan payments at least 90 days overdue represent about 3 percent of outstanding mortgages, he said, and nationally the figure is 2.85 percent.
