Foreclosure postings spike for October

Tarrant County foreclosure postings for single-family homes are on track to reach 20,000 by the end of the year – and set to reach 60,000 for the Dallas-Fort Worth area – according to the latest numbers from Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service Inc., a research firm that tracks foreclosure postings in the area

Home postings set to head to auction in October reached 1,975, second only to July’s postings and marking the seventh consecutive month home postings have topped 1,500.

The filing deadline has passed for foreclosure postings to be filed at county courthouses throughout the Texas for the upcoming foreclosure auctions on Tuesday, Oct. 6.

And Tarrant County was in line with the other Dallas-Fort Worth counties including Dallas, Collin and Denton. For the area, 5,940 foreclosure notices were served on D/FW homes – a 34 percent increase from the 4,436 notices recorded for the October 2008 auctions.  

“Four months ago, D/FW home postings jumped up to 6,072 for the July foreclosure auctions,” said FLS President George Roddy Sr. in the research release. “For October, postings have surged, reaching almost that level again. While spikes normally occur within a cycle, these are the highest spikes in this foreclosure cycle and quite possibly on record … I am left wondering if perhaps the flood gates have been opened by the lenders; but, only time will tell. I will be watching the next several months’ foreclosure posting activity carefully.”

Nearly 51,000 homes in the D/FW Metro have been posted for foreclosure during the first ten foreclosure auctions of 2009, pushing the number of homes posted for this ten-month period to a new record high for this foreclosure cycle.

According to Roddy, since 2000, Dallas-Fort Worth residential foreclosure posting activity has quadrupled.

“By this time in 2000, just 11,025 homes had been posted for foreclosure compared to the almost 51,000 so far this year,” he said. “… At this pace, home foreclosure postings should top 60,000 by the end of the year in the Metroplex.”