However, foreclosures are down from a year ago, when 368 properties were advertised for the auction block in October 2011, which represents a 7.3 percent decline. There were 345 properties listed in September in the Cherokee Tribune, the county’s legal organ.
Legal notices must be published for four consecutive Fridays before a property can be sold at auction. Not all properties advertised end up at auction.
The auction is held on the first Tuesday of each month on the steps of the Cherokee County Courthouse in Canton. The next auction is scheduled for Nov. 6.
A total of 3,240 new foreclosure listings have been advertised in 2012, which is a 10.4 percent decline from last year. In 2011, 3,615 were listed at this point.
According to RealtyTrac, which records foreclosure data from across the nation, foreclosure activity hit a five-year-low in September.
That was the impression David Moody of ERA Sunrise Realty in Canton said he got when he attended a Freddie Mac conference this week in Atlanta.
“Their inventory is down year-over-year — properties that have been taken back by servicers and deeded over to them to be disposed of — they expect that trend to continue,” he said. “It may not be fast but it will continue. They do see a gradual decline.”
On Thursday, the company reported that 180,427 properties received foreclosure filings in September, down 16 percent from a year ago. September’s total was the lowest total since July 2007. Foreclosure filings include notices of default, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
The national decrease in September was driven mostly by sizable decreases in non-judicial foreclosure states – those that do not require court action on a foreclosed home – such as Georgia, California, Texas, Arizona and Michigan.
Experts say an improving economy, more short sales and more restrictions in the foreclosure process have also contributed to the slow down.
Overall, Georgia ranked fifth in foreclosures in the third quarter, behind Florida, Arizona, California and Illinois, according to RealtyTrac. One in every 151 housing units in Georgia had a foreclosure filing in the third quarter.
“We’ve been waiting for the other foreclosure shoe to drop since late 2010, when questionable foreclosure practices slowed activity to a crawl in many areas, but that other shoe is instead being carefully lowered to the floor and therefore making little noise in the housing market — at least at a national level,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in a statement.
“Make no mistake, however, the other shoe is dropping quite loudly in certain states, primarily those where foreclosure activity was held back the most last year.”
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