Foreclosure Rate In Collin County Continues To Rise

May 1st, 2008

According to preliminary totals, more than 400 homes have gone into foreclosure in the seventh successive month. The rate of home foreclosure is steadily on a rise but still it is better in comparison to the national and state rates. Foreclosure Listing Service has compiled preliminary statistics and they show that Collin County will have 400 foreclosure postings next month and this happens to be the seventh month in a row.

According to the report, for the foreclosure auction scheduled in May, the numbers of notices filed were 510, in the county. This shows an increase of 32 percent as the notices filed in May 2997 were 386. Year 2008 has witnessed 2,198 foreclosure postings till now. Bernard Weinstein, director, Centre for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, commented that though the numbers were pretty large, they did not come across as any huge surprise. He says that first they were facing a recession. Secondly, people who had bought property recently might have reset their subprime mortgages or the neighborhoods they live in might have been reset and so they were squeezed and thus not able to pay their monthly dues.

Bonnie Brown from Foreclosure Listing Service said that there were more expenses than mortgages that the homeowners were concerned about. Apart from being an indication of a lagging economy, there were also divorce, unemployment as well as medical issues that added to the problem. So a number of factors lead to foreclosure and the principle dominating factor according to him is the increase in the cost and the standard of living. Food, gas and other utilities have become terribly expensive and their adverse effect is seen on foreclosure rates.

Brown feels that a family cannot stretch their household budgets any more as they have already been extended to the most. Weinstein also says that mortgage payments are not the first priority to most families. Most people who live on a tight budget think about buying their food and filling up their car with gas before mortgage payments. They skip paying their mortgage for some months and hope to make up for it somehow.

According to Weinstein, the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex real estate market is not as badly hit as the rest of the country. There has been a slight drop in median prices in the Metroplex of around 1 to 4 percent but in the other parts of the country it is as much as 12 to 13 percent. The economy here has been comparatively stable as there was no overbuilding in this area.