The number of houses listed for foreclosed home auctions in the Austin region for the first 6 months of this year soared by 64 percent compared to last year’s first 6 months, based on foreclosure records in Tarrant County.
All throughout the first months of the foreclosure crisis, Travis County and most other areas of Central Texas were largely protected from the foreclosure wave that battered counties in Florida and Arizona because subprime lending activities in Texas were not as prevalent as in other states.
Reflecting back now, the restrictions on home equity lending and loan refinancing in the state during the housing boom protected a lot of homeowners from experiencing the problems now hitting borrowers in other states who refinanced their mortgages for myriads of expenses instead of reducing their loans.
What are hurting Austin now and causing even higher-priced homes to get listed in foreclosed home auctions are the persistence of the recession, the rising number of companies closing or cutting operations and the soaring number of residents losing their jobs.
In May, the foreclosure rate in the Austin region is still very low – 0.5 percent of mortgaged housing units in the area – compared to the 1.8-percent nationwide foreclosure rate.
But foreclosed home auctions are growing, affecting both houses in affluent subdivisions and in lower-income communities.
For the 12-month period ended April, the total number of foreclosure filings in Central Texas surpassed 17,000, representing a 33-percent rise from the prior 12-month period. Statewide, the increase rate was 11 percent. Figures included all default notices, foreclosure notices and listings for foreclosed home auctions.
In the first quarter, one house in every 279 housing units in the Austin region was hit with a foreclosure action. The rate appears to be very small when compared to Nevada’s ratio of one house for every 27 units, but the rate has been devastating families in Austin, especially families in gated subdivisions that never thought they would go through such a harrowing experience as foreclosure.
For affluent communities such as the master-planned community Steiner Ranch near Lake Travis, the experience of foreclosure is not only about the pain of losing a home, but is also about loss of pride and shame of having no more money.
For the June and July foreclosed home auctions, Steiner Ranch have the biggest number of foreclosed homes listed compared to other subdivisions in Travis County.
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