Foreclosures ease in Denton County

Are we starting to finally come out of the housing slump?  Foreclosure postings filed on Denton County homes declined 11 percent over the past year.

The year-end numbers show 6,576 residential foreclosure notices were filed in Denton County, compared to 7,428 in 2010, according to data from Foreclosure Listing Service, Inc.

“Although the lower numbers are encouraging, I believe that postings will remain high for the foreseeable future. However, it is a relief to the local economy that postings have inched down from the record high-end of this foreclosure cycle,” said George Roddy, Sr., President of Foreclosure Listing Service.

Roddy said that D/FW annual residential foreclosure postings reached the lowest level in three years in 2011, with 56,358 notices filed threatening area homes with foreclosure – down 12 percent from a peak reached in 2010 when 63,835 postings were filed.

In general, 25 to 40 percent of the foreclosure postings filed each month result in an actual foreclosure, Roddy said. Most of the auctioned properties are repossessed by lender, but a number of the postings are auctioned off to a third party buyer.

At recent foreclosure auctions, successful bidders/buyers purchased properties at the foreclosure auctions for an average of .46 to .64 cents on the dollar.

Looking ahead, 426 postings were filed on Denton County homes at the upcoming foreclosure auction on Jan. 3rd, a sharp drop from last January’s 632 postings.

One local community has bucked the downward trend however, with foreclosure postings in Lantana jumping 27 percent from 2010 to 2011, according to Roddy.  The master-planned community recorded 119 postings in 2011, up from 94 in 2010. 

For the upcoming auction on Jan. 3rd, five postings have been filed threatening homes in Lantana with foreclosure.