Hundreds losing homes to foreclosure in Pasco County

Friday, July 6, 2007

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This zip code in Pasco County has the highest rate of foreclosures in the Bay area.

An area of Port Richey encompassing zip code 34668 has the highest number of people losing their homes to foreclosure in the Bay area.

That area is a middle-income area with many blue-collar workers who own single-family homes.

According to RealtyTrac.com, the 34668 zip code in Pasco County had 259 foreclosures in March, April and May of this year.
A homeowner who didn't want to be identified, but is on the edge of foreclosure, said she'd like to take the situation to Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

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"I would like to cry out to my governor and say, 'Help us,' " she said. "I'm just an average Joe trying to make it, and I'm drowning."

Real estate agent Donna Cahill said the solution is for taxes and property insurance costs to come down.

"Their mortgages and taxes are going up 200, 300, 400 dollars," Cahill said. "Nothing else has changed, but their taxes and insurance have gone up and they're just not making 300 or 400 dollars more a month. And eventually you can't hold on any more."

The Clerk of Court's Office in Pasco County said west Pasco has about double the number of foreclosure filings compared to East easco. West Pasco's foreclosure filings in the first half of this year are more than double the number of filings in the same area for the first half of last year.