Foreclosure judgments in Westchester County last year increased by more than 50 percent from 2014, indicating “a foreclosure crisis that continues to linger,” Westchester County Clerk Timothy C. Idoni said on Tuesday.
The 1,178 judgments issued in 2015 by state Supreme Court judges in Westchester amounted to the highest number in the last decade. The previous high was set in 2008, when 1,034 judgments were issued.
In 2014, judgments against defaulting mortgage borrowers totaled 772 in the county, more than double the number in 2013. The 2015 total was up nearly 53 percent from 2014. On a monthly basis, judgments peaked in December last year, when 167 were issued, compared with 70 in December 2014.
While judgments spiked again last year, the pace of foreclosure actions filed in Supreme Court by lenders”™ attorneys slowed in 2015. The 2,125 filings for the year amounted to an approximately 9 percent decrease from 2014.
The rise in judgments last year indicates a logjam of pending foreclosure cases in the courts from the housing mortgage crisis and Great Recession is clearing in Westchester.
In the last decade, foreclosure filings in the county peaked at 3,123 in 2009. After a three-year decline, filings against Westchester property owners in default spiked again in 2013, when 2,697 foreclosure actions were started.
