Monthly foreclosure postings for Bell County have now exceeded 100 for 12 consecutive months. Five times this year, monthly foreclosures have surpassed 150. February was the highest month for 2008 with 198 postings, according to Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. of Addison.
“The largest gain in Central Texas posting activity for October was a 78 percent surge in Bell County,” wrote George Roddy Sr., in a monthly report filed by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. “This was followed by a 75 percent jump in Travis County’s foreclosure notices. Other Central Texas counties also exceeding a 50 percent gain in October postings were Williamson County with a 70 percent climb, as well as both Comal and McLennan counties with a 57 percent increase.”
Roddy said 91 percent of the postings were served on single-family homes. These home postings were filed due to either a delinquency on a mortgage secured by a home, or due to delinquency of homeowner’s association fees.
Killeen lead Bell County in foreclosure postings for October.
“Only three towns within Bell County had more than 10 postings filed for the upcoming auction,” Roddy said. “Those include Killeen with 104 postings, Temple with 21, and Harker Heights with 11.”
Texas, the second most populous state, ranks sixth nationally in foreclosures for September, the latest month that Foreclosure Listings.com has posted on its Web site.
Earlier this week, The Center for Responsible Lending - an organization that says it is non-profit, non-partisan and dedicated to protecting home ownership - criticized the federal “bailout” plan now under the microscope in Washington.
“The government plan announced by Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke fails to deal with the root cause of the crisis - families in foreclosure - and instead is purely and simply a bailout of the lenders who created this disaster. The bailout will not solve our economic problems because it will do virtually nothing to stop the foreclosure epidemic. Continuing foreclosures will drag down the economy even further.”
