The county's previous record was for the October 2009 sale, when 1,609 properties were advertised for foreclosures. The April 2010 sale saw 1,551 properties advertised for foreclosure in Cobb.
The 1,616 properties up for sale next month is an increase of 37.3 percent from the September 2009 sale, when 1,177 properties were advertised.
The Legal notices must be published for four consecutive Fridays before a property can be sold at auction. Not all properties advertised necessarily end up at auction.
The auction begins at 10 a.m. on the first Tuesday of each month on the steps of the Cobb Superior Courthouse in Marietta. The next auction will be Sept. 7.
So far this year, 10,207 Cobb properties have been advertised for foreclosure auctions, a 16.9 percent increase over the 8,733 advertised during the same period in 2009.
On Thursday, RealtyTrac reported that Georgia had the eighth highest number of foreclosure filings in the nation, with 12,577 properties receiving foreclosure filings in July.
California (66,910), Florida (51,557) and Nevada (19,602) were the top three, respectively. They were followed by Michigan (18,833), Arizona (16,298), Nevada (13,727), and Ohio (13,511). Texas (11,727) and Maryland (6,961) followed Georgia to round out the top 10 states.
Kim Galletta, a realtor with Re/Max One in Marietta, recently earned a Certified Distressed Property Expert national designation for having completed training in foreclosure avoidance, particularly in short sales.
Galletta said banks are increasingly willing to negotiate short sales with home sellers because of the large number of foreclosures. A short sale happens when a mortgage lender agrees to accept a payoff of less than the balance due on the loan.
However, Galletta said it must be proven that a seller is in financial distress before most banks are willing to agree to a short sale.
"If you have a seller that's in financial distress - has lost their job, a death in the family, going through divorce, that kind of thing - and they have no money, no assets and they will go into foreclosure, yes," she said. "It's cheaper for the banks to go ahead and take less than what's owed on the property now than go through the whole foreclosure."
On Wednesday, President Barack Obama's administration announced that through the existing Housing Finance Agency Innovation Fund, the U.S. Treasury Department will issue $2 billion for unemployed homeowners in 17 states and Washington D.C. struggling to make their mortgage payments.
Georgia is set to receive $126.6 million from the funding.
In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will soon launch a complementary $1 billion Emergency Homeowners Loan program to provide assistance for up to 24 months to homeowners who are at risk of foreclosure and have experienced a substantial reduction in income.
"Together, these initiatives represent a combined $3 billion investment that will ultimately impact a broad group of struggling borrowers across the country," Bill Apgar, HUD senior advisor for mortgage finance, said in a statement.
Mark Brandemuehl, vice president of marketing at Movoto.com, a real estate brokerage website, says the federal money headed for Georgia will not be nearly enough to help the many people who are now behind in mortgage payments. He estimates between just 4,000 and 5,000 state households would benefit.
"Georgia has about 260,000 households having difficulty making their payments or in foreclosure. Their combined monthly payment is about $360 million and their total loan balance is roughly $32 billion," said Brandemuehl.
"Versus these numbers, the $126.6 million from the Hardest Hit Fund is just a drop in a bucket. To really help homeowners avoid foreclosure, the fund must deliver significant loan balance reductions and permanently reduce payments, which means the program will have to focus its resources."
Galletta, who works in Cobb and southern Cherokee counties, said the record number of foreclosures metro Atlanta is experiencing will not likely end anytime soon.
"We're hoping with the short sales and banks being more open to short sales, we can help get these homes sold before they go into foreclosure," Galletta said.
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