St. Louis County foreclosures keep soaring

The region’s foreclosure crisis will get worse before it gets better, local experts told the St. Louis County Council Tuesday. In St. Louis County alone, planners are expecting about 5,000 homes to go into foreclsoure this year, up from 3,756 last year, and 2,835 in 2006, said Garry Earls, the county’s chief operating officer.

“We expect a very large number. As many in the next six months as we saw all of last year,” Earls said.

What’s hapenning, said Mike Duncan, research manager for the county’s planning department, is that adjustable rate mortages taken out several years ago are resetting at higher interest rates, leading to higher monthly loan payments. And with credit tight, it’s harder to refinance.

While the St. Louis area has not been hit as hard as some parts of the country in the number of foreclosures, the situation here is hitting working class homeowners especially hard. The typical foreclosed house in St. Louis County is 50 years old with an appraised value of $116,000, and many are located in north St. Louis County, according to planning department data.