Foreclosure Update

I wanted to share our City's foreclosure situation. I have updated you from time to time and wanted to give the most recent data. I am giving the total number which includes occupied and unoccupied houses along with empty lots that are foreclosed. The 2nd number is only homes that are in foreclosure.

6/19-----166-----145
7/1------240-----136
7/14-----264-----148
7/29-----235-----163
8/12-----246-----174
8/29-----265-----181
9/16-----250-----170
10/6-----187-----134
10/22----197-----134

The trend does look slightly better but we are far from out of the woods on this one. I would like to share part of my budgeting plan for the next two years and how we will bridge the time it takes for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid property taxes and assessments to be collected. Our historic cuts in City spending are the first critical part of the equation as fewer tax dollars are needed, this process will continue as needed. The other factor for bridging the troubled waters we face are our fund balances.

The last two years we have built and maintained healthy fund balances that can be tapped for one time money. It is important that we be cautious about using these funds but if the economic climate continues to get worse we are protected. It is however important to not let these funds be wasted on excessive spending or pet projects. The only use of these funds should be to provide essential City services due to unpaid property taxes and assessments.