BasicGov / BLOG

RealtyTrac reported today that U.S. home foreclosure filings slowed in October for a third straight month and rising unemployment will spur another record year of failing mortgages in 2010, with only marginal improvement in 2011.

Foreclosures have many casualties from individuals, homeowners, renters to entire communities.

Municipalities have seen and will continue to see a swell of citizen complaints resulting from foreclosures – vacancy and abandonment of homes when they cannot be resold.  Regulatory changes are needed but this will take time to institute.  In the meantime, municipalities have a sense of urgency to fix the economic and social impacts of foreclosures on their communities.

The Mustel/BasicGov survey revealed that they are finding ways to deal with the impact of foreclosures despite their limited resources by using code enforcement policies, assigning responsibilities and implementing technology to improve processes and efficiencies.

Read more about the Mustel/BasicGov survey findings and the impact of foreclosures on local governments.

It is encouraging to see that in a recent survey conducted by Mustel Group and sponsored by us (BasisGov) that software is being used by local governments to help manage neighborhood complaints (code enforcement) but there is still a myth among the non-users that it is costly.

• Approximately 80% said that the foreclosure crisis has resulted in an increase in citizen complaints over the past year;
• The most frequent complaints were overgrown yards (87%), property damage (61%) and garbage dumping (47%);
• 88% do not plan to increase staff to manage the overall problem;
• 79% of the municipalities surveyed use software applications to manage their code enforcement process and already one in four of those were using web-based software;
• among non-users, 61% thought cost a deterrent in planning to implement software.

With the rise in foreclosures, increase in related complaints at city halls and the freeze on hiring more staff, overcoming the high cost myth will help many municipalities.

Do you think cost is the only deterrent?

(Photo credit – http://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/ / CC BY 2.0)