Ramsey said homeowners must miss three house payments before a bank begins foreclosure proceedings. It then takes between six to eight months from the final missed payment for the home to find its way into her records.

Once the homes are put up for auction, Ramsey said, the property usually ends up in the hands of the bank responsible for the initial mortgage.

In April 2007, Ramsey said she saw just 76 homes for auctions in her sheriff’s sales. This April, she handled 150.

The difference was less drastic in May, with only a five-home difference year-to-year, but the increases, she said, show no signs of slowing.

As houses empty across the county, with homeowners being kicked off their property and forbidden from returning, area lawns are being neglected.

Elwood building commissioner Tom Doan said he juggles more than 400 empty homes in the town, primarily as a result of foreclosures.

“You can drive up any street in town and there’s at least one repo,” he said. “That’s the reality right now.”

Doan said he’d seen an increase in neglected lawns of about 100 homes over last year. The rows of unkempt lawns are hurting the housing market, he said.

“I think it’s affecting the real estate, not just in Elwood, statewide and nationwide,” he said. “It’s common sense that people looking to buy a house in any neighborhood, they don’t want to see five empty houses next to it. It’s not just Elwood — it’s all over.”

It’s a buyer’s market

While it may be impossible to sell a home for the price you want, those looking for a bargain are in luck, according to Rob Sparks, executive director of the Corporation for Economic Development.

“Obviously, from our perspective on the economic development front,” Sparks said, “the foreclosure market has offered up some fairly good investment opportunities for real estate in a market that was already fairly priced.”

The low home values may attract outside investors to the area, Sparks said.

Investors will have to scoop up available properties while they can as Sparks believes the decline has reached its breaking point and will turn around soon. “The sense from the local banking (community) that I’ve talked to is that we’re probably through the worst of that.”

While it may not seem too reassuring in comparison with mounting foreclosures, lagging home sales and doomsday news stories filling the air, Sparks said he was confident that the economic downturn in the housing market was on its way up.