COBB COUNTY, Ga.,None — Cobb County foreclosures are rising, with 6 percent more homes going up for auction next month than the previous month.
Usually, the number of homes up for auction in Cobb hovers around 1,000. In September, that number is more than 1,250. Realtor Wendy Bunch says those numbers tell a story about the economy.
“If we do not keep the housing market going whether it is a foreclosure or a short sale, a resale, it’s not going to get this economy going,” Bunch said.
Bunch says home ownership translates into jobs.
“From heating and air and electrician, plumbing, Sheetrock, painters, curtains, curtain rods, lawn equipment, appliances, and all these things take employment," she said. "And they take shelf life that we’ve gotta have to keep our economy going as a whole."
Bunch said, you can buy three bedroom homes in Austell for $25,000. One client is buying seven homes in Cobb for $150,000. But those deals may not last long.
Bunch says instead of ranch homes, she’s starting to see more large homes in foreclosure. One foreclosed home in west Cobb was built for $2 million, and Bunch expects it to be auctioned between $500,000 and $750,000.
Notices about the auctions fill almost the entire section in the Marietta Daily Journal. The newspaper’s business reporter counts the auctions in her own paper as a barometer of the economy.
“There really seems to be no end in sight for foreclosures in Cobb," reporter Katy Ruth Camp said. "There’s only been one month that we’ve been under 1,000, and that was in July and that was 954.”
WSBTV
