Good Dallas Real Estate News: Dallas Fort Worth Residential Foreclosure Postings Drop to 40 Month Low!

For the first time in more than THREE YEARS, foreclosures are diminishing in Dallas Fort Worth. George Roddy Sr. of Foreclosure Listing Service, Inc. reports some good news preceding the spring market: Dallas Fort Worth residential foreclosure postings have dropped to a 40-month low. Roddy says that for the upcoming auctions on May 3, only 3,719 postings have been filed on delinquent homes, which is the lowest number since January of 2008 when 3,672 postings were filed.

2008 — wow — remember those days? And remember last April when 6,168 foreclosure postings were reported?

Have we come a long ways baby at last? No, says Roddy. Don’t get too excited about a one month drop. In other words, it ain’t Miller Time yet. During the previous 31 consecutive months, the volume of D/FW home foreclosure postings has exceeded 4,000 each month.¬† Roddy thinks the decline may be artificial:

“I believe this is an artificial decline in foreclosure notices due to the tremendous scrutiny applied by regulators during recent months in response to publicity about past problems with the foreclosure process, including robo-signing.”

The 40 year veteran foreclosure researcher says¬† this month‚Äôs drop in postings is certainly welcome news. But he doesn’t believe we are out of the storm yet.

“The fallout from this foreclosure crisis is going to take a long time to work through, says Roddy.”

In fact, some analysts are predicting lenders will actually increase the number of foreclosures in the months ahead as they get their processes down. Foreclosure attorneys are in Washington right now lobbying. This is positive: the biggest drop in current foreclosure filings took place in Collin County, which had really taken a beating according to my sources up there. Postings dropped 31 percent from a year ago. Postings are down 23 percent in Dallas County and down 24 percent in Tarrant County.

e also cautions against claiming that job gains in Texas over the last years was the catalyst: there has simply not been enough growth yet, nor has it been for a significantly sustained period of time, he says.

It’s kind of like taking the cast off too soon. So what does this mean to home buyers and sellers? More of the same. In other words, get rid of the notion that your home is some sort of moneybox that will make you rich. I do think many Americans are finally get realistic about real estate. Don’t let anyone pawn off stupid loans on you, and look at real estate as a long-term investment. Today we are hearing grumblings of inflation, and the rich are snapping up homes like crazy.

“Even re-employment in today’s market does not assure that a family’s bills will be paid because many workers are being hired at wages far lower than at their previous job,” says Roddy.

And keep in mind what our legislature and Congress is up to: raising taxes to cover the deficit. I am still bullish on real estate and would say buy now rather than later, but only if you can really afford to!

Please Note:

• The statistics listed above are for residential foreclosure postings, which include postings of single-family homes, condominiums, & townhomes.
• N/A = Not Available
• N/C = No Change
• ‚ÄúPercent Change‚Äù is rounded to the nearest whole number.
• D/FW Metro is the Dallas/Fort Worth Metro, which equals the sum of Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, & Denton Counties.