Foreclosures are on the rise locally and statewide, threatening to depress property values and further erode local government coffers, according to a report Thursday from the state comptroller’s office.

In Broome County, there were 173 foreclosures between July and September, up from just 18 two years ago. One of every 514 homes in Broome is in the foreclosure process, according to the report.

More than 50,000 homeowners in New York face foreclosure this year, particularly in the Mid-Hudson Valley and western New York.

The rise in foreclosures due to the housing bust is also ominous for the finances of local governments, who rely on property taxes for 44 percent of their revenue, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli warned.

He said property taxes could rise if the housing crisis accelerates in New York and causes home values to continue to fall.

“Property taxes are the foundation for local tax revenues, but that foundation is weakening,” DiNapoli said.

Property taxes will account for 39 percent of the City of Binghamton’s expected revenue next year. And while the Greater Binghamton area has been bucking national trends with its climbing housing values, Mayor Matthew T. Ryan is concerned.

“We’ve already got our fiscal crisis,” Ryan said, “and obviously we’re not looking forward to something that adds to it.”

While New York ranks 36th in the country with foreclosure rates at one in every 546 households, the report found that foreclosures have increased in some parts of the state, mainly in the Mid-Hudson Valley, Finger Lakes and parts of the Southern Tier since last year.

Statewide, mortgage recording tax revenue fell nearly 15 percent in towns between 2004 and 2007. DiNapoli cited the impact in Yonkers, which recently announced it would lay off up to 300 people in part because of a slowdown in property sales.

“With no end in sight to the housing crisis, many local governments will find their finances stretched pretty thin in order to maintain services,” DiNapoli said.

Binghamton, already planning a 14 percent jump in property taxes for homeowners next year, is among a handful of New York communities that do not have much breathing room. In 2009, the city will tax its residents more than 90 percent of what is constitutionally allowed.

“We’re going to have to try to think creatively,” because there’s no more room for tax increases, said Ryan. He also underscored the need for Washington and Albany to help local governments and homeowners.

“Hopefully, the federal government will start to help out these people,” Ryan said. “As the bailout was intended to do, I think.”

The Finger Lakes region had a foreclosure rate of one for every 423 homes in the third quarter of this year, which was from July through September. In Broome County, it was one in every 514 homes; in Dutchess County it was one in every 319 homes.

Orange County had the highest foreclosure rate in the state: one out of every 205 households in the third quarter.

Meanwhile, foreclosures statewide increased 77 percent from 2006 to 2007. And in the third quarter of this year, foreclosures ballooned 99 percent compared to the same periods since 2006, the report found.

This year, the majority of the foreclosures upstate are concentrated in six urban counties — Erie with 1,229, Monroe with 881, Niagara with 281, Albany with 262, Onondaga 209, and Broome 173. The counties have about 74 percent of all foreclosures upstate, largely because they had the greatest number of subprime mortgages, DiNapoli said.

The crisis has caused home sales to tank in some parts of the state, which is also bad news for town governments, which rely on mortgage recording fees for nearly 6 percent of their yearly revenue.

The decline in home sales in the first six months of 2007 compared to the same period this year was most significant in New York City, with a 31 percent decline, followed by the Mid-Hudson region at 28 percent.

Only the North Country and western New York were able to avoid double-digit percentage drops in home sales. In western New York, house sales dropped nearly 9 percent through September.

But the drop in sales hasn’t resulted in a comparable decline in sale prices, the report found. In Albany County, home sales dropped 20 percent in the first half of 2008, but the median sale price increased nearly 6 percent.

Broome County had similar results: The median sale price rose 7 percent despite a 16 percent decline in sales. The report suggests the reason is that homes are already moderately priced in upstate, and many are starter homes instead of luxury homes.

Source: Press Connects