Dallas-Fort Worth Neighborhood Affected by Foreclosure

September 24th, 2008

Almost all the surrounding areas of Dallas-Fort Worth have been hit hard by foreclosure activity in the first half of 2008. The homeowners are in a serious trouble. There are a large number of people who have defaulted on their mortgages that has led to a foreclosure on their home. About 11,000 properties got sold during foreclosure in the first half of this year. It has been found that the highest number of foreclosures were in ZIP codes 75115 that consists of 75052, Grand Prairie, and most of DeSoto. It had a very bad effect on the real estate industry of these regions.

Cities like Arlington, Fort Worth, Garland, and Dallas had the largest number of foreclosures during the first quarter. About $123,668 debt were pending for the homeowners of this five county area. It amounts to a tax value of $148,384, which are also nearly four years old. Looking at the housing base of each of the cities, it has been found that the highest rate of foreclosures during the middle of the year were at Princeton in Collin County and Oak Point and Aubrey in Denton County.

It is envisioned by many real estate experts that the rate of foreclosures in Dallas and nationwide will continue to face an upward direction throughout the next year. The homeowners who managed to finance their home by making use of adjustable rate mortgages are still waiting to see their payments go up. The time, by which they will be able to see that, it will be difficult for several of them to pay higher monthly payments or look out for cheap funding.

According to real estate expert George Roddy, “If you look at those areas, most of them have subdivisions that have been built in the last few years and that are way out. You have the crummy loans that were made and add in the cost of driving to work to Dallas, and people can’t afford it. They wanted to get in a new home and get in it cheap and weren’t thinking about the cost of commuting.”

The increasing number of foreclosed properties together with excessive pressures on the lenders is probably going to make the lenders move forward to give back the properties that they have taken from the homeowners. A total of 3,100 foreclosed properties have been currently identified in the local multiple listing services of a realtor at North Texas.