Delco sheriff's sale of homes goes forward

Some homeowners, investors, lawyers, and real estate agents arrived yesterday morning at the Delaware County sheriff's sale of foreclosed homes, not sure if it would even take place.

The county sheriff's office had postponed the sale until Aug. 21 pending a court ruling, but a judge overruled the stay.

Because of the morning hearing, the sale was delayed for 21/2 hours. About 95 homes went up for auction. The total number of sales won't be available until Monday, Sheriff Joseph F. McGinn said.

McGinn had hoped to stave off the auction when he petitioned the court to approve a mortgage foreclosure-diversion program for the county. The program would have given homeowners another opportunity to save their homes. But President Judge Joseph P. Cronin Jr. denied the postponement.

"It's not a dead issue," said McGinn, who plans to continue with a similar program or to seek another avenue to help with foreclosures in the coming weeks.

His plan for a diversion program would mandate that homeowners facing foreclosure contact the Consumer Credit Counseling Service and hold a conciliation conference with lenders to try to work out a payment modification.

McGinn said he viewed sheriff sales as "a value to communities," as investors buy and renovate abandoned residences and put them back on the market. But with the credit crunch creating more foreclosures, he said, he wanted to to reach out again to struggling owners.

Nationally, a record 1.5 million properties were seized by banks or received a default or auction notice in the first six months of 2009, Bloomberg News reported this week.

At the sale, lenders' attorneys announced the minimum price that the lender would accept for the property, and then bid $1 for it. A handful of home and business owners waited to learn the fate of their properties.

Marina Selverian of Polished Spa & Boutique in Wayne was eager to see who would buy the property that her landlord could no longer afford.

Though her business is still open, she worried about its future with a new owner.

"I spent a lot of money fixing the place," she said. An investor bought the property, and Selverian chatted briefly with the new owner, but she said she was unsure whether her business would remain in its current space.

Maria Pothier of Sharon Hill showed up at the sale, even though the auction on her house was pushed back a month. Pothier, who could not pay her mortgage after she lost her job at an airline, said she simply came to learn how a sheriff's sale worked.

"I'm trying to see if I can save my house," she said.