Foreclosures Spike In Bell County

July 27th, 2008

Bell County foreclosures continue to spike at a galloping pace. Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. gives the information that the foreclosure postings for August 2008 have gone up by 53% from the August of 2007.

Bonnie Brown the vice president and foreclosure analyst of FLS commented that foreclosure postings have surged forward again in Bell County making a record with its second highest monthly numbers. This is the 10th running month that the foreclosure numbers in the county have crossed 100. She further clarified that 90% of the foreclosed properties totaling to $17 million comprises of single-family houses, condos and town houses. Currently, since the last one-year lenders have filed foreclosures against property worth $111 million in the county. The median price of the properties being foreclosed upon in this year and month stands at $108,000.

Bell County foreclosures noted for August shows the second largest numbers in the nine counties comprising of Central Texas. Austin showed a bigger increase of 62%. The loans of Veterans Administrations make up for 45% of the residential houses that are being foreclosed upon this year. This is the single largest kind of loan that has defaulted in Bell County. For 2008 the VA foreclosures have shot up by 71% from what it was in 2007.

Deborah Huddleston specializes in VA loans in Killeen. She is hearing and noting a lot of foreclosure activity in recent months. She opines that VA loans are slipping into foreclosure for multiple reasons. The deployment of services to the Middle East wars causes stress to the families. Secondly the VA loans do not require any down payment. This does not tie down the borrower and any day he or she can walk away. Huddleston explains “If they have problems when they go overseas, it’s easy to let them go.” The third reason is that there is a large supply of new houses in the region and this makes the sale of the existing house difficult. So foreclosures follow. One cannot make a profit by buying a house in Killeen and trying to sell it within two or three years. Selling and refinancing becomes impossible. There are many who are coming to Deborah for this but the situation does not permit. Foreclosures become inevitable.

The picture is grim in Bell County. Compared to 2007 foreclosures are shooting up by 33%. This is the largest jump in the nine counties that make up the Central Texas area.

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