Taylor County Sees Foreclosure Spike
By: Laura Kellerman/RNS
Updated: January 15, 2009
ReatyTrac reports 17 homeowners filed for foreclosure in Taylor County in the month of December, giving the county a medium status for the rate of foreclosures. It equals out to one in every 3,173 homes.Texas ranks 29th in the nation for foreclosures with 58,734 filed in December.
More than 2 million foreclosure filings nationwide in 2008 set a new record, in spite of state moratoriums that put filings on hold, in some cases for three months.
RealtyTrac says there was an 81-percent increase in filings from 2007 to 2008 and a massive 225 percent bump from 2006.
The 2.3 million figure boils down to one in every 54 homes receiving at least one notice of foreclosure from a lender during the year. Lenders actually repossessed more than 850,000 properties last year, more than double the 404,000 taken back in 2007.
"We're in for a very difficult year," said RealtyTrac senior vice president Rich Sharga.
Sharga expects January will be a record-setting month and that laws in California, Massachusetts and Maryland that placed moratoriums on filings did little more than delay the inevitable for thousands of homeowners.
