LANSING -- Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing is pouring over some daunting paperwork.

"There are 792 properties in Ingham County right now that owe over $3 million that need to pay their taxes by March 31, or they will be foreclosed upon," Schertzing said Wednesday.

His report out the same day shows a record number of homes here on the verge of property tax foreclosure -- an 80 percent increase over 2008.

"I think the people that are facing foreclosure this year have been hurting for a long time," Schertzing said, blaming the rise on the economy, though he noted mortgage foreclosures in Ingham County were down in 2009 compared with 2008.

"Foreclosures are what have destroyed the market over the last four years," said Bill MacLeod, president of realtor Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood.

He said property values in Ingham County dropped 24 percent in 2008 and 12 percent in 2009 -- declines that are directly related to foreclosures. Properties around you go up for sale at a discounted rate, MacLeod explained, and your appraisal falls right with it.

"The housing values right now are about the same as they were back in 1996," he said.

But it's not all doom and gloom. The Ingham County Land Bank has taken over some of those foreclosed properties to either renovate or demolish them.

That, in turn, can make those blighted properties more valuable, and do the same to those around them.

"We're able to take some of the worst houses on the block and renovate them into the best houses on the block," said Schertzing, who also chairs the Land Bank.

And while that's a rare occurrence, it is at least a small part of the reason home values in Ingham County actually saw a minor increase in the fourth quarter of 2009 -- an anomaly after years of decline.

"It was just a little over 1 percent," MacLeod said with a smile of relief. "But frankly that's the first time in four years."

A bit of good news, on a day some 800 people were informed -- pay your taxes or you're out.