Dallas County Budget Suffering Due to Commercial Property Foreclosure

The county budget of Dallas is already suffering from an unexpected deficit of $60 million this year. Moreover, the recent foreclosure in the commercial properties will bring about more damages in their budget.

Commercial foreclosure of properties is causing more damage to the county than the residential foreclosure of properties. At the time of the real estate boom, the home prices did not increase to high levels as compared to other cities. This is the reason that Dallas survived the billowing effect of home foreclosures compared to the rest of the country. However, a record increase in the number of defaulters in the commercial sector, is gradually affecting the foreclosure situation in the region.

An Addison research firm reported that, in March, $900 million loan properties, that include 250 commercial properties, were up for auction in the Dallas region. It is expected that these commercial foreclosures will further cut down the taxes and revenues of the county that it generates from using these properties. Experts are speculating on the commercial property price fall by 9 percent in 2010 in the Dallas area.

The overwhelming rate of Dallas commercial property foreclosure has forced the county judges to focus their campaigns on the damages that will be caused due to these foreclosures on the county budget.

Jim Foster, the incumbent judge, has confirmed that the short fall in the budget will not be met by increasing the property tax amounts of residents. GOP candidate Wade Emmert, school board chief, Larry Duncan, and attorney Clay Jenkins – democratic candidates, also reconfirmed that there will be no increase in the tax rates for fund raising.

Utilizing federal funds that are allocated in the economic stimulus program, an increase in the imposition of traffic tickets, and budget cuts are the steps that might be taken to meet this deficit in the budget. In the second round of the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, it provided $53 million additional funds to the three large housing nonprofit organizations like Chicanos Por La Causa, El Paso Collaborative for Community and Economic Development, and Habitat for Humanity. They work in Texas. Habitat for Humanity got the highest amount of $28 million funding.

With these funds, it is expected that it will help rehabilitate foreclosure hit properties and other damaged property listings. This will also utilize the funds slowly to improve the situation of the community. Apart from Dallas, the commercial property foreclosures in the other cities of Texas also accounted for the increase in the foreclosure listings.

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