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(ABC 6 News) – As Mower County officials clean up after a cyber attack on county systems last week, the local real estate market is taking a hit.
Many systems have been down since that attack, are still working on getting everything back up and running.
So, why is it affecting the real estate market?
If you live in Mower County, everything about your property is stored electronically and is searchable through the county recorder’s office. The data is still there, but with systems down, it’s impossible to access. That makes buying or selling properties very difficult.
Marty Helle, a real estate lawyer from Austin, explains. He says that “Having this public record is a key foundational component to that, because unless we know what’s happened in the past to a piece of property we don’t know who owns it. And if we don’t know who owns it we don’t know who can sell it.”
It’s causing a lot of realtors, lenders, and people interested in buying or selling to have to slow down or completely halt closing on a home.
Kris Heichel is the branch manager of the Heichel Team for Fairway Mortgage. She explains why many are halting on closing a home, saying “It’s too risky to close a loan not knowing if for instance a judgement or some other kind of lean would take precedence over our mortgage when the dead finally did get recorded.”
As of right now, it’s unclear how long it will take county officials to get everything back up and running. Until then, officials say they are working on some temporary solutions.
