Mahoning County leads Ohio in growth in home foreclosures

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Mahoning County experienced the largest growth in foreclosure filings among large Ohio counties between 2015 and 2016, according to a recent study, but more than half of the filings were tax foreclosures initiated by the Mahoning County Land Bank.

There were 1,289 foreclosures filed in the county in 2016, up 9.9 percent from 1,173 in 2015, a study by Policy Matters Ohio found.

Although an increase from 2015, the number remains lower than the 1,381 foreclosures in the county in 2011, the earliest year for which the report provided data.

Foreclosures dropped in the county from 2011 through 2014 before rising again in 2015 and 2016.

In 2016, the Mahoning County Land Bank initiated 660 tax foreclosures, up from 623 the previous year.

This still leaves an increase of 79 foreclosures from 2015 to 2016, or a 6.7 percent increase, unexplained by county land bank activity.

These numbers, however, do not include tax foreclosures initiated by municipal or township land banks in Youngstown, Struthers, Campbell and Boardman.

Ian Beniston, executive director of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., said it’s important to distinguish between tax foreclosures and bank foreclosures.

Bank foreclosures occur when someone is unable to pay his or her mortgage, which could lead to a property becoming blighted or vacant. Tax foreclosures often represent a group such as the Mahoning County Land Bank moving to acquire those blighted or vacant properties.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on vindy.com.