Fort Worth Foreclosure Homes for Sale Still Rising

The number of Fort Worth foreclosure homes for sale is still rising largely because of delayed foreclosure postings. According to an Addison-based real estate research company, the increase in foreclosure postings in September included a lot of properties that should have been included in foreclosure listings in previous months.

Researchers said that the filing of loan modification applications was able to delay foreclosure proceedings on many housing units, but subsequent rejection or failure to modify the loans ultimately put the housing units into the foreclosure process.

Based on data from the research firm, nearly 6,000 foreclosed houses in the Fort Worth-Dallas metro area will be auctioned off in October. Some of the housing units however are reposts, according to the firm.

The research firm also said that nearly 51,000 housing units in the Fort Worth-Dallas area have already been posted in the first ten monthly foreclosure auctions held, marking a new record for the area.

However, according to the researchers, they are expecting some of the homes to be saved by new agreements between lenders and homeowners. They also said that actual number of Fort Worth foreclosure homes for sale in the first 6 months of the year were lower by 17 percent than foreclosures in the first half of last year.

As foreclosure postings continued to rise compared to filings last year, Fort Worth house prices in July dropped by 1.6 percent compared to prices in July last year, based on the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index.

Home price analysts however contend that despite the continued drop in prices, the decline has been slowing in the past 6 months in a big majority of the metro areas surveyed by Standard & Poor’s.

Economist David Blitzer said that the annual pace of drop in house prices is decelerating and that the increase in prices in many other areas is being sustained. He said that if these trends continue, the nationwide housing market may be on its way to recovery.

The Fort Worth area is among metro areas nearing recovery as shown in its slowing rate of home price decline slowdown. Based on the Case-Shiller home price index, the Fort Worth and Dallas area is next to Cleveland in the rate of approaching positive price levels. Cleveland had a price decline of only 1.3 percent from July 2008 while Fort Worth had a 1.6-percent price decline.