- Erlanger is reporting high numbers foreclosures in the city, based on conversations from the recent city council meeting.
- In some ways, it mirrors national trends, although Kentucky’s trends aren’t as bad as other parts of the country.
- Officials emphasized that they weren’t trying to displace residents.
Conversations at this week’s meeting of the Erlanger City Council suggest the city, and likely the rest of the region, is seeing an increase in the number of foreclosures.
City Attorney Jack Gatlin reported the city was involved in 31 at the time of Tuesday night’s meeting, although he pointed out that many of the foreclosures were not city-initiated and over half of the ones that were city-initiated are commercial properties.
Exact trends in the city beyond the 31 mentioned at the meeting were not immediately available, but data from national and state-wide trends suggest an overall increase this year.
ATTOM, a private data firm that specializes in real estate analysis, recently released an analysis of foreclosures for the third quarter of 2025.
While the analysis indicated the trends weren’t outside of historical trends – foreclosures peaked in the aftermath of the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis – 2025 has shown upward trends overall throughout the country.
“In 2025, we’ve seen a consistent pattern of foreclosure activity trending higher, with both starts and completions posting year-over-year increases for consecutive quarters,” said Rob Barber, CEO at ATTOM. “While these figures remain within a historically reasonable range, the persistence of this trend could be an early indicator of emerging borrower strain in some areas.”
Nationwide, ATTOM’s analysis showed a 16% increase in foreclosure filings from quarter three of 2024. In Kentucky, foreclosure filings increased 5.38% during the same period, which in truth isn’t nearly as bad as some other states.
ATTOM rated Kentucky as 36th in the nation in terms of foreclosure rates, at one foreclosure for every 2,568 housing units. Florida was the worst, with one foreclosure for every 814 housing units.
Foreclosures can occur for several reasons, such as an owner failing to pay back the bank that issued the financing to buy a property. Cities can also begin foreclosures in the event of a high number of code violations, sanitary or safety problems or failure to pay property taxes, but there’s usually a process of escalation before that occurs. Most cities view foreclosure as a last resort.
In Erlanger, the city administrator can only consider foreclosure proceedings “once delinquent fines/liens have exceeded $3,000 in total,” according to the Erlanger ordinance. Foreclosed properties are sold through a bidding process with the county master commissioner’s office.
Gatlin emphasized at the meeting that “the goal with all of the foreclosures is not to actually take people’s homes away, but sometimes it is a tool needed for code enforcement.”
According to Gatlin, the city had recently instituted a new system to better track code violations. Essentially, it entailed regular meetings with code enforcement officials and other government workers to ensure everyone was on the same page.
Council Member Jennifer Jasper-Lucas asked some clarifying questions.
“With the [federal] government shutdown, how does that affect people whose incomes might be affected by the government shutdown, and then if they were being foreclosed on?” Jasper-Lucas asked.
There’s currently no option for relief at the state level, Gatlin said, and bankruptcies, which occur in federal court, are currently stalled due to the shutdown. The 31 foreclosures Gatlin mentioned are all in state court.
“I will tell you that it takes a lot of effort to get to the finish line in a foreclosure and a lot of time,” Gatlin said. “So, the one, two, three, four, five weeks, however long it’s going to be that the government is shut down, I don’t practically think is going to impact the process.”
“I was asking mostly for the benefit of the people listening to the meeting because I think we [the council] understand some of those things that happen behind the scenes,” Jasper-Lucas said. “But, you know, when somebody hears 31 properties – I don’t want somebody to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, Erlanger’s taking people’s houses.'”
“This is not a money-making venture for us,” Gatlin said.
Mayor Jessica Fette also pointed out that the police social services coordinator is aware of the people on the list, so she can “offer as many resources as possible.”