Foreclosures Auction Slows Down in Dallas-Fort Worth Area
The public foreclosures auction scheduled for February in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area involves less properties than the auction held in January, based on figures from an Addison-based foreclosure tracking firm.
Total foreclosure postings in the North Texas counties of Dallas, Tarrant, Denton and Collin for the February auction dropped to 4,695 postings, a 20-percent decrease from January and a four-percent drop from February 2008. This decline marked the first time that postings dropped on a year-over-year basis in 28 months.
Foreclosure filings in Dallas County dropped by 19 percent from January, postings in Denton County plunged by 25 percent and postings in Collin County decreased by 28 percent. Foreclosures in all these three counties also dropped compared to postings in 2008 and in 2007.
Only Tarrant County posted an increase in foreclosure postings from February 2008. A total of 1,545 foreclosures were posted in Tarrant for the February auction, marking a 17-percent drop from January but marked a two percent increase from February 2008.
According to analysts, the drop in postings in January is not a significant indication that the housing market is recovering if it is not supported by foreclosures auction declines in the next several months.
The last month-over-month decrease in foreclosures in the area occurred in October 2007, the month 3,260 foreclosures were posted.
The number of properties listed for the February auction last year also dropped in Collin, Dallas and Denton, but at a moderate pace. Collin postings decreased by 9 percent, Dallas filings dropped by 7 percent and Denton postings dropped by 4 percent. It was only in Tarrant where postings increased.
In another report, nearly six percent of homeowners with mortgage loans in the Fort Worth and Arlington were in default by three months or more in November, an increase of 3.8 percent from the percentage in November 2008. During the same month, the nationwide mortgage default rate was 8.14 percent.
In November, the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate in the Dallas metro area hit 7.9 percent, below the nationwide seasonally unadjusted rate of 9.4 percent, based on figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Statewide, about 270,000 non-farm jobs were lost over the 12-month period to November 2009, a 2.6-percent drop in non-agricultural employment.
However, analysts are positive about economic recovery in Texas, predicting a job growth of almost one percent in 2010. A substantial improvement in the job situation would sustain the slowdown in foreclosures auction in Texas.
