
Hear that bubble hissing now?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Foreclosures jump to '80s level
Nearly 4,000 homes up for possible sale; gas prices, debt blamedHome foreclosure postings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have surged to their highest level since the 1980s.
Nearly 4,000 homes in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties have been posted for possible sale in November, up 49 percent from the same period a year ago.
"It's high, much higher than normal," said George Roddy, president of Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service, which compiled the data.
Fueling the foreclosures are interest rate hikes, rising living expenses and consumer debt, and aggressive lending practices.
Home foreclosure postings reached about 35,300 so far this year, increasing 20 percent over the same period a year ago. That figure has already surpassed the total for 2005, which was about 32,500.
Foreclosures typically have their roots in a family calamity, such as divorce, death or job loss. Making things worse this year, said Mr. Roddy, were high energy prices and ballooning credit card debt. Meanwhile, real wages have stagnated.
"If you look at gasoline charges up until a month ago, they were up to the moon," he said. "And obviously, there's the cost of electricity and the high credit card balances people are holding."
Another likely culprit: aggressive lending, in which mortgage companies sell homeowners products that might not be suitable in the long term.
')Still, there are also positive signs, said Craig Jarrell, president for the Dallas region at Pulaski Mortgage Co.
he said of the foreclosure postings. "Gasoline prices are down, interest rates have stabilized, the economy's doing all right, the stock market is getting better.