Foreclosures; Tarrant County, Texas
dfw.com
Posted on Fri, Feb. 13, 2004
County's foreclosures up again for 1st quarter
By Sby Andrea Jares
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Area foreclosure postings continue their upward climb in 2004, increasing 18 percent in Tarrant County in the first quarter, compared with the same period in 2003, according to figures released Thursday from Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.
A total of 2,505 Tarrant County homes were listed for foreclosure auctions in January, February and March. Properties are put on the foreclosure list the month before the auctions take place.
All four counties the service tracks reported increased foreclosures in the first quarter. Foreclosures were up 24 percent in Dallas County and 17 percent each in Collin and Denton counties. For the four counties as a whole, there were 7,970 homes on the foreclosure list for the first three months of the year, an average increase of 20 percent.
Although foreclosures for the first three months of the year were up sharply over the same time last year, they increased only 5 percent from the last quarter of 2003 to the first quarter of 2004, said George Roddy Sr., president of the Foreclosure Listing Service. This means that the number of foreclosures may be leveling off, he said, although at high levels -- the 3,007 homes listed for foreclosure in January for the four counties was the highest monthly total since the real estate crash of the late 1980s.
But leveling off is about as good as it's going to get, he said. "There's actually no reason for foreclosure postings to come down in the next six to eight months," he said.
The foreclosure process is the endgame for some homeowners who have lost their jobs and can't find new ones, or can't find jobs that pay as much as their old ones, and are facing bills they can't pay.
"Every month, people basically run out of time," Roddy said.
Fort Worth's Housing Department continues to see increased numbers of people who fear they are on track to lose their home.
"For most, generally it's an embarrassing situation," said Edith Pack, housing counselor. "For most of them, they've tried everything."
There is a further dark cloud on the horizon -- the prospect that the days of historically low interest rates may be numbered. The Mortgage Bankers Association, as well as other economists, have indicated that they expect interest rates to start creeping up this year.
If they do, it could be disastrous for people who opted for adjustable-rate mortgages as a way to get into a home, Roddy said. After the low introductory rates expire, house payments will go up as interest rates increase.
Roddy also said that he has seen an increased number of home equity loans sending people into foreclosure in recent months.
"We have not done a study on that, but an awful lot of the loans that come through are home equity loans [compared with] a year ago," Roddy said.
Price appreciation in some other parts of the country, such as Southern California, has curbed foreclosures in those areas, said Greg Sullivan, vice president and vice president of marketing for Foreclosure.com, a service that lists properties for sale after they have been foreclosed.
With appreciation, those homeowners have been able to sell their homes at a profit, getting them out from under a mortgage they couldn't pay.
But in North Texas, the median price of a home fell to $128,280 in January, according to figures released this week from the North Texas Real Estate Information System. This is the first time since October 2001 that the median price has fallen below $130,000.
Tarrant County foreclosures
Foreclosures continued to increase each year in the first quarter of the year, compared with the previous year.
First quarter Foreclosures
2000 1,194
2001 1,291
2002 1,522
2003 2,125
2004 2,505
Source: Foreclosure Listing Service |
