NO. 4: RECORD FORECLOSURES

The skyrocketing foreclosure rates that have been making national news for months and became a major issue in the presidential campaigns also hit Highlands County in 2008.

As of Monday morning, foreclosures had been filed on 1,269 properties, according to Priscilla Michalak, director of the civil division of the Highlands County Clerk of Court's office.

"I don't think anybody has seen the number of foreclosures this high in all the years that I've been here," Michalak said, and she's been with the clerk's office for more than 20 years.

Foreclosure filings in Highlands County for 2008 rose by 524 over 2007, when there were 745 filings. Both years were well above the 395 foreclosure actions filed in 2003.

Florida's foreclosure rate ranked third nationally, with 30,190 filings for the year by the end of October.

One sign of the slowed economy is that very few investors are inquiring about buying foreclosed properties, Michalak said.

"When the boom was on three years ago, we had a number of investors coming in and buying these (foreclosed) properties," she said. But, she said, investors searching the files of foreclosed properties at the clerk's office have all but disappeared.

In the past several weeks, Michalak said, a number of attorneys have cancelled foreclosure sales, and she's hoping that's a positive signal.

"We're hoping that some banks are giving people an extended time to work things out," she said.

Jim Clinard, president of Heartland National Bank, said community banks always try to help families stay in their homes during tough economic times.

"I think banks as a whole always will work with people who are having a hard time in these hard economic times, to do everything that they can to keep folks in their homes," Clinard said.