Michigan Foreclosures

Foreclosures are still an enormous problem in Michigan.

And the national real estate bubble didn’t have to burst a few years ago for the state to be hit with a widespread foreclosure problem.

A Kalamazoo company named Title Check auctions off tax–foreclosed properties from most of michigan’s 83 counties.

This afternoon, they were selling tax foreclosures from Marquette, Alger, Delta, Schoolcraft and Chippewa Counties.

Title Check general manager Marty Spaulding says the number of foreclosed properties the company is dealing with has gone up significantly in the last 5 to 6 years, but he thinks the increase is leveling off.

Spaulding says the quantity and quality of houses that are being tax-foreclosed seem to be on the rise.

And he says many other foreclosed properties are being abandoned by lenders.

Spaulding says those lenders are often large nationwide firms that do not have much of a local presence, if any, which means they have less incentive than local lenders to want to maintain a property.

Title Check also auctions off properties from Houghton, Baraga, Ontonagon and Gogebic Counties.

Those properties are being sold tomorrow at noon at the L’Anse American Legion post.