DFW Foreclosure listing jump by nearly 30 percent

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DFW foreclosure listings jump by nearly 30 percent(Housing : Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington) 3/19/2009
The number of homes facing foreclosure next month in Dallas-Fort Worth is up almost 30 percent from a year ago to one of the highest volumes on record, according to Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service. More than 5,200 DFW residential properties are scheduled for April's foreclosure auctions in the four-county area.
It's only the second time that monthly home foreclosure postings in the area have been this high, according to George Roddy, president of Foreclosure Listing Service. "The only other month that residential postings reached above 5,000 was in February of last year, when the record was achieved with 5,315 postings filed."
The biggest jump in foreclosure postings is in Tarrant County, where filings are up 32 percent from a year ago. Collin County reached a new all-time high with almost 700 home foreclosure notices.
Home foreclosure postings in North Texas hit a record last year, with more than 50,000 houses threatened with forced sale after their owners defaulted on mortgages. That was up 17 percent from 2007. Through the first four months of 2009, the number of foreclosure postings is up 7 percent from the same period last year.
North Texas has suffered from soaring home foreclosures for several years, but there had been signs in recent months that the volume of defaults was leveling off. Economists are now worried that increasing job layoffs and rising unemployment in the area will result in more people losing their homes.
"Debt, in the form of subprime loan [payment] resets, was a primary cause for foreclosure postings last year," said Ted Wilson, a housing analyst for Residential Strategies Inc. "Now, with increasing announcements of layoffs, it shouldn't come as a surprise that postings remain stubbornly high."
Some lenders have been holding off on foreclosures in recent months, and the surge in postings may indicate that they are "getting back to business," Roddy said. During first quarter 2009, North Texas foreclosure postings were up only 3 percent from the same period last year.[Dallas Morning News]
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