Anyone who has been reading the news lately can see that the number of Single Family Home Foreclosures are growing around the country. Kyle Texas is no exception. Though we have not been hit as hard as other parts of the country we have seen a rise in the number of Kyle Single Family Homes going into foreclosures. To give you an idea, I created the chart below which compares the number of foreclosures running through the multiple listing system 2004 to today. 
Keep in mind this chart does not reflect the Kyle foreclosures that take place on the Hays County Courthouse steps the first Tuesday of every month. But the figures will still give you an idea of the trend.
You can see on the chart that Kyle Texas is not exempt from the foreclosure woes seen in the rest of the country. The number of Single Family Homes in foreclosure in Kyle has grown steadily over the last several years.
One of the factors contributing to the increased foreclosure rate in Kyle as well as the rest of the Austin area, is the rise in the number of Out-Of-State homeowner foreclosures.
Anyone working in the Austin Area Real Estate Market a few years ago remembers the number of out-of-state investors (mainly from California) that came to our fair city to take advantage of the lower prices. Though some agents like myself, would explain they were not going to see the huge appreciation they were used to seeing in California, and our leasing market was soft, the taxes were high etc etc, it appears that many weren't listening and still purchased without adequate knowledge and preparation. Many had been reading about how much money you can make in real estate, zero down, using leverage, getting cash back at closing (which is illegal in Texas by the way) etc etc. And many were a bit naive to say the least.
Unfortunately realty has caught up with many. What we have begun to see in recent months is that these "first time" and "early days" investors have begun to pull out. Either by selling, or in many cases by walking away from their investments as they find the ongoing expenses, repairs, finding new tenants, home preparation between tenants, etc is too much for them.
While I didn't see the Hays County figures in time for this article, I did see that in the upcoming Travis County Foreclosure Auction to take place August 5th, 52 of the properties are owned by out-of-state residents.
That's 13% of the total which is up from 5% last year. While in Williamson County the percent of out-of-state owners is 6%. I would expect Hays County numbers to be even higher as we saw a large number of investors during that same time period.
The figures also do not reflect short sales (homes going into foreclosure but not yet officially foreclosed). In these cases the owner and the bank have come to an agreement that the owner (who is several months late on payments) will sell the home at a price agreed upon by the bank (usually a lesser price than they might ordinarily have accepted). In this way the owner can avoid the foreclosure on their credit record while the bank, seeing the inevitable foreclosure process looming ahead, agrees to the process in order to avoid the heavy costs associated with taking over a property ownership, eviction, legal fees, selling costs etc. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon occurence.
We'll be watching to see how this all plays out in the coming months. Experts agree that we will likely continue seeing a rise in foreclosures over the next several months before seeing it level off.
If you are interested in purchasing a foreclosure, one of the existing foreclosed homes on the market don't fit the bill, then let us know what you are looking for and we'll keep an eye out. Because unfortunately the numbers are on the rise and will likely to continue for the coming months. According to the Foreclosure Listing Service, in the counties we cover the numbers for the year-to-date foreclosure postings have risen over the last year as follows:
Travis County: 902; up 23%
Williamson County: 1788 up 23%
Hays County: 639 up 11%
Bastrop County: 386 up 2%
So if you want to check out the current foreclosures on the market, or if you would like to consider purchasing real estate, foreclosure or otherwise, in Kyle, Buda or anywhere in the Austin and San Marcos Areas, email us or give us a call. We'd love to help you out and be your Austin Area Realtor.
Celeste
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