County Land Record Filings Down, UCC Filings Up for Fiscal Year Caudill says downward trend with land record filings is a result of increased interest rates
The fiscal year for Oklahoma County closed on June 30th and also marked the recreation of the County Budget Board consisting of all eight elected officials. Oklahoma County Clerk Carolynn Caudill stated the year-end reports show the number of land record filings in Oklahoma County was down 7.1% from the year before. She attributes the decline to rising interest rates.
Caudill said, “If you compare the number of real estate filings in my office over the past seven years to the average prime interest rate for each of those years, you can see a clear picture that when interest rates are low our real estate filings are high.” The year with the lowest interest rate was fiscal year 03/04 when the prime was at 4% and the County Clerk’s Office filed a record 227,660 documents.
Caudill added, “Likewise, when interest rates are high the number of real estate filings we receive is low.” During the same seven year period the year with the highest interest rate was fiscal year 00/01 when the average prime rate was 8.83% and documents filed were 172,705.
Interest rates have steadily increased since interest rates bottomed out at 4%, and the number of filings has generally decreased as well. Caudill said, “The average prime interest rate this past year was 8.25% up from the prior year’s rate of 7.13%.” The Clerk’s Office filed 188,744 real estate documents last year, which is 14,485 documents less than the year before.
Not all of the County Clerk’s filings follow this same trend with interest rates. Uniform Commercial Code (or financing statement) filings have generally shown a steady increase over the past seven years. Caudill said, “We became the UCC Central Filing Office for the State of Oklahoma during fiscal year 2001/2002. Generally, if you buy something on credit the financing statement is filed with our office.” The first year of state UCC filings came to 136,709 documents, and with only one year showing a slight decline the number of filings has increased to 159,141 documents. The number of UCC filings increased 2.7% over the prior year.
Caudill said, “Knowing the relationship between interest rates and our workload is very helpful for planning purposes.” She has worked hard to streamline processes within the Clerk’s Office. Caudill said, “I am pleased we are able to handle the increased filings in our UCC Department with fewer employees. This is a direct result of the Clerk’s Office staying on the cutting edge of technology.”
July 20, 2007
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