Foreclosures Up 17 Percent In North Carolina

Foreclosures have increased by 17 percent, year over year, for the first five months of 2008 in North Carolina.

Data comes from records on commercial and residential foreclosures maintained by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts, covering the period from January to the end of May for each year.

Brunswick County showed the greatest leap of any of the large counties, with foreclosures jumping 129 percent. Mecklenburg County had the greatest absolute increase, relative to spring of last year, with a jump of 445 additional foreclosure filings.

While Brunswick, with its high percentage of expensive vacation homes, or Union County, with its prevalence of exurban tract developments might make sense to appear in the upper end of this list, other counties suggest that there are more than a few reasons for the spread of foreclosures. In places like Davidson County (Lexington), Gaston, or Pitt, it points to strains in places that once relied upon manufacturing. Even Cumberland, where military jobs would suggest that the economy might weather a few downturns, witnessed a 14 percent increase.

The numbers suggest that many in counties that depend upon tourism and the beach economy are really hard hit. Brunswick is not alone. In Currituck, for example, foreclosures were up 110 percent. Onslow increased by 22 percent and Carteret by 74 percent. In Cherokee, where casinos generate a lot of revenue, foreclosures surged 118 percent.

The problem of foreclosure was muted in some places.  While it jumped in large metros including Mecklenburg and Guilford, Wake and Orange increased at a rate below the state average.  Foreclosure filings in Edgecombe (Rocky Mount) and Watauga (Boone) fell by more than 26 percent.