Taylor County Sees Foreclosure Spike

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.