Dallas real estate foreclosures hit a record high with more than 5,500 homeowners facing foreclosure in May. This number is25 percent higher than May 2008, according to statistics released by Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.
Collin County had the largest increase with a 45 percent jump from the previous year, topping 700 for the first time. In comparison, Dallas County foreclosures increased 15 percent.
More than 24,000 home foreclosure filings were recorded in the four-county Dallas-Fort Worth area since the beginning of 2009, Foreclosure Listing Service said, up 11 percent from the same period of 2008.
More than 50,000 Dallas-Fort Worth area foreclosure postings were recordedin 2008 - 17 percent higher than 2007 and a record.
Analysts with Foreclosure Listing Service say the biggest reason for the increase in postings in the last few months has been moratoriums on foreclosures put in place by many mortgage lenders.
"They have been reposting many of these properties every month because of the moratoriums," said George Roddy, Foreclosure Listing Service president. "They have no choice but to continue posting the properties for foreclosure while they negotiate with the borrowers."
More than 40 percent of the current foreclosure postings in Dallas County are repeats.
While the number of foreclosure filings has ballooned in recent months, the actual volume of houses sold on the courthouse steps by lenders has fallen, Roddy said. "The average is between 30 percent and 40 percent of all properties posted are actually foreclosed on each month," he said. "But it's been down in the high teens or low 20s. There has obviously been a lot of pressure on lenders not to foreclose during the last few months."
But for many troubled homeowners, those delays may now be over. Some lenders have recently announced that they are lifting the self-imposed moratoriums.
"I think the floodgates are going to open," Roddy said.
"We know that job loss is the primary reason that people are losing their homes today," said Ted Wilson, a housing analyst with Residential Strategies Inc.
More 30,000 jobs were lost in the DFW at the end of February compared with a year earlier. Since then, other local companies have announced layoffs.
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