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Steamboat Springs — The number of Americans facing the prospect of losing their homes to foreclosure was down for the third straight month in October, but it was still up nearly 20 percent from a year ago. And a Front Range foreclosure expert recently told a Steamboat audience that on a per capita basis, the distressed property scene in Routt County is not nearly as pronounced as in Weld and Larimer counties, for example. But there’s likely more hardship ahead in the Yampa Valley.

“Forty to 50 percent of the sales in Greeley, Boulder and Larimer County are short sales,” Richard Evans said. “It’s a big part of our business. With the number of dwellings” in Routt County (11,880), the 67 properties lost here since October 2006 are “not much.”

Evans is the district manager for Stewart Title of Colorado, overseeing operations in Weld, Larimer, Boulder, Jackson and San Miguel counties. As a foreclosure attorney working for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Farm Credit Union, he said he has handled thousands of foreclosures.

He spoke Nov. 5 at the Steamboat Springs Real Estate Roundup and Expo hosted by Colorado Group Realty.

That perspective won’t offer much solace to the 23 Routt County property owners who have been foreclosed on and have seen their property deeds transferred to the holders of their bank notes thus far in 2009.

Public Trustee Jeanne Whid­don confirmed that the number of property owners receiving notification in 2009 whose lenders are seeking foreclosure grew to 170 this week. That figure is up from 157 on Nov. 1.

How many of those 170 will actually lose their property? The final tally for 2009 won’t be known until early 2010, Whiddon said. That’s because the foreclosure process can be lengthy and has built-in time to allow property owners to cure their delinquency on payments.

Recent history suggests that the number could be in the range of 20 percent, but there’s no way to be certain that the national decline in properties lost to foreclosure will hold sway here.

Whiddon reported that 10 of 47 property owners in Routt County who received those initial notices of election and demand, or NEDs, in 2007 lost their property.

The number of NEDs grew to 55 in 2008, but the number of deeds returned to lenders was again 10. So, the 23 properties lost thus far in 2009 are more than double the number in the past two years and the number appears certain to grow, but for the time being, it represents a lower percentage of NEDs than in the preceding two years.

Evans said the Colorado foreclosure law that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2008, affords property owners 110 to 125 days to cure their problems with their lenders before the property goes to resolve and the trustee issues a certificate of purchase. The cure, or payoff period, is even longer for agricultural properties — 215 to 230 days.

In addition, Evans said, banks often opt to continue sales for as along as another 12 months.

His title office is busy assisting Realtors and property owners working with distressed properties. They cannot give out legal advice, he cautioned, but use their experience to steer people in the right direction.

Evans urges property owners who expect that they soon will be in trouble with their mortgage payments to accept that they are not likely to come out of the process completely unscathed.

“For people who realize, ‘I see the locomotive coming — I’m going to miss a payment,’ I want them to open their eyes and accept they may not be able to have the perfect option,” he said.

Evans said it is likely that Routt County residents who have been subjected to a trustee’s sale are probably upside down in their homes — they owe more than the house and land are worth.

For some, but not all, the short sale process is one way to avoid the damage to their credit rating that is implicit in a foreclosure.

In a short sale, Evans said, lenders agree to sell the property for less than the amount of the note. Banks aren’t good at carrying foreclosed properties, Evans said, and want to avoid the considerable expense that goes with it. However, if property owners’ demonstrable income is above a certain level, suggesting they should be able to resume making payments, they won’t agree to enter into the short sale process.

For property owners and Realtors working with short sales, it is highly desirable if the lender will agree to an acceptable short sale in advance, Evans said.

Short sales can be lucrative for Realtors, he added, but the most successful Realtors in the current market on the Front Range have learned to be exceptionally organized in vetting property titles, preparing property work and following up with banks.

“I have a number of Realtors having their best years on the Front Range,” Evans said. “There’s a lot of juice in there for short sales.”