The news you dio not see: # of properties sold for unpaid taxes soaring.

[dixiegrrrrl]

This week in the Mobile Al. newspaper there are 39 pages
of properties being auctioned off for back taxes. Average tax is 400-500 $.

Each auction notice is in print so tiny I needed my glasses and a magnifying glass to see them, so there are about 75 notices per page.

Mobile has a pop. of 400,000 as of July 08.

[Uben]

1. Not that uncommon

Every city does that. It's usually properties that are dilapidated, abandoned, or the owner has died and left no heirs. We had a flood here a couple of years ago and there were a lot of homes that were destroyed to the point it was no feasible to repair them. A lot of folks had no insurance and the properties were condemned, so they quit paying the taxes. This is a town of 15,000 and we had about 30 homes that fell into this category. Since it would cost more to demolish them than the property is worth, people simply walk away. The lots are in a flood plain, so no one wants them.

[comtec]

2. link?

it sounds horrible, but wth, I would not mind a place.
I understand to make the place livable it'll take alot, but might be a fun project at some point.

[pscot]

3. The number of trustee sales

appearing in our little community newspaper have soared. Used to be maybe one per week. Last Wednesday there were 19. And this is an upscale retirement area with a lot of high priced vacation "cottages". Balance owed on these places run range from a couple hundred thousand to half a mil, with fees and late payments of $20,000 to $30,000. There's still some building going on, but real estate sales are at a complete stop.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. You understood my point.

The listings have soared, compared to the usual number.
Last year's were high, but not as much as this years.

[SheilaT]

4. Generally about once a year

those lists get printed up, and they are surprisingly long even in good economic times. Heck, our name and property were on that list many years ago in another city because we'd closed on our house during a window of time when for some reason I never did understand our taxes were not paid by the mortgage company. We never got a separate bill about the unpaid taxes, and I don't even recall how it was we discovered we were on that list. Meanwhile, we'd been paying our mortgage -- which included taxes other than the first, unpaid amount, quite merrily. I went down to city hall with a squirming toddler in tow -- the one time I didn't care at all that my kid was acting up -- and after arguing with some official for half an hour gave him the check for the taxes.