Dallas Foreclosures Increase 67% in November 2006

"After two consecutive months of decreasing activity, Dallas foreclosure filings spiked in November, surging 67% from the previous month and placing the city’s foreclosure rate back on top among five of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, according to the RealtyTrac™ U.S. Metropolitan Foreclosure Market Report.

The eight-county metropolitan area reported 4,653 new foreclosure filings during the month, a foreclosure rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 286 households — 3.4 times the national average.

“These latest numbers are a complete about-face for Dallas, which over the past couple of months had been running counter to the nation as a whole in terms of foreclosure trends,” said James J. Saccacio, chief executive officer of RealtyTrac. “Dallas foreclosures took a major upswing this month, placing the city’s foreclosure rate back in top position among the five major metro areas we track each month.”

Dallas returned to the top spot, a position it had occupied for most of the year, replacing Chicago as the major metro area with the highest foreclosure rate. Foreclosure rates in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New York also registered below the rate in Dallas."

provided by Realtytrac, 12/19/06

Pre-foreclosure

I continue to be amazed at the number of foreclosures in this county. What amazes me even more is that more than half of those individuals and families did absolutely nothing to stop the foreclosure process. Maybe it's because they didn't know they had options available to them or maybe they let pride make their decisions for them. Whatever the case may be, the bottom line is that foreclosure can be prevented, in certain situations. I'm talking about selling a home via short sale. And while it's something many real estate agents claim they know how to do, very few actually do. So, it's important for homeowners to choose the right agent to list their home, and going so far as to check references beforehand. This will save valuable time, which is something that a homeowner does not have when faced with this situation.