VALDOSTA — You must have seen the columns and columns of legal ads for homes in foreclosure in Lowndes County. Every Friday and sometimes in Saturday editions, there they are.

The national sub-prime mortgage and credit lending crisis that’s taking record numbers of homes from homeowners across the nation is affecting homeowners right in our own backyard.

The statistics on legal ad sales for foreclosures from Daily Times records for the past year may not show the staggering numbers of lost homes in places like Florida or California.

But one home lost is one tragedy made.

There are ways homeowners can avoid the situation of losing their home in a foreclosure. Those tips will be listed below with comments from a reputable local mortgage official.

First, let’s review the numbers in Lowndes County. The Daily Times is the local legal organ or publication for posting legal ads, so the accuracy of these reports should be fairly close to the real situation homeowners are facing here.

Looking at monthly legal ad sales for foreclosures in the first four months of 2008, compared to the same months in 2007, the numbers don’t reveal anything too unusual:

• Foreclosure ads in January 2007 — 45; January 2008 — 45.

• Foreclosure ads in February 2007 — 55; February 2008 — 73.

• Foreclosure ads in March 2007 — 44; March 2008 — 35.

• Foreclosure ads in April 2007 — 32; April 2008 — 34.

Then in 2007 months where there’s yet to be statistics to compare on 2008 numbers, there’s somewhat of a roller-coaster of foreclosures from month to month:

• May 2007 — 33 foreclosure ads.

• June 2007 — 63 foreclosure ads.

• July 2007 — 34 foreclosure ads.