Data from the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office showed that the number of foreclosure properties in the area increased to 260 last month, the second highest month this year following the 282 posted in April.

Industry analysts believe that foreclosure rates will continue to increase as unemployed residents run out of savings and reserve cash.

Capitol Federal Savings regional lending manager and first vice president Dan Jones said that the county is currently experiencing a manageable increase in foreclosures. However, more financially-struggling people are expected anytime soon as they come to use up their reserves or severance pay. He added that these people have not yet reached the stress point level.

Meanwhile, Wichita real estate industry analysts have reported a gradual rise in the number of foreclosure and short sales. They said that they are not surprised by this development as they expected it as unemployment increases.

They added that foreclosures are still in the manageable stage but there are signs of their impending increase, noting the gradual rise in consumer loan delinquencies, almost 50 percent of the national delinquency average rate of 2.5 percent.

Additionally, industry analysts said that the massive layoffs will have a harder impact on the consumer loan side instead of the home loan side. They pointed out that luxury items would be the first to go when consumer loans start to feel the impact of the increasing unemployment rate.

They believe that the second half of this year would be the critical months for the local foreclosure market. But right now, they are one in saying that it is still too early to make a trend as the true stress test would be more accurate at the end of the year.

Sedgwick County is not the only area that anticipates a rise in the number of foreclosure homes due to the worsening unemployment problem. The cities of Seattle in Washington and Minneapolis in Minnesota are some of the areas that foreclosure filings have jumped and more are expected as the unemployment continues to spread across the country.

House Repossession Up, So Are Short Sales is a post from Foreclosure-Auction.net - Your online source for house auctions for sale.