subject: Foreclosure Filings Down This Month [print this page] Good news for the Dallas areaforeclosure filings are at their lowest level in 15 months, surprising analysts who had expected foreclosures to remain high throughout the year. After all, the first few months of this year were fraught with filings, enough that tallying up all them (32,000 for only 5 months) suggests that 2010 is a year for record highs rather than lows.
There isn't much else you can say about this data. Foreclosure filings may imply foreclosure but it can also result in a short sale, a payment rearrangement, or other process that results in the house avoiding the auction. Still, with the amount of filings that are in circulation, it is hard to imagine anything but a large number of foreclosures as well.
However, there is still trouble in the water. 15% of Dallas homeowners are said to be underwater, so problems will still crop up down the line and could for some years yet. If things remain steady for these struggling homeowners, they may yet see the light at the end of the tunnel. If not though, there may be another wave of foreclosures in the future.
As an interesting side note, 40% of all the filings in the area are in Dallas County itself. That's where the population is, but it is also worth noting that these are the areas that you'd normally expect to be overbuilt in. Perhaps the problem might not be as bad as it appears at first, given that the irrational exuberance was one of the problems in the market in the first place.
