Foreclosures Up! World Ends! (Or Maybe Not)
“Dallas-Fort Worth home foreclosure filings jump 31%” screams the scare headline on the DMN site. Indeed, more than 5,300 homes are up for auction on February 1. But there’s a little something wrong with the story. The something wrong starts with this:
One reason for the substantial increase in February postings may be that the January auction fell on New Year’s Day, Foreclosure Listing Service analysts said. By law, lenders in Texas are only allowed to take properties through foreclosure on the first Tuesday of each month.
As reporter Steve Brown notes, there were 43,000 foreclosures in 2007 — averaging 3,583 a month. If, as he suggests, the 5,300 figure represents two months’ worth, that’s 2,650 a month. Which means foreclosures are down 26% for the first two months of 2008. Isn’t that worth its own headline?
6 Comments to “Foreclosures Up! World Ends! (Or Maybe Not)”
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Wick:
The News doesn’t deal in facts. That doesn’t sell papers. Only fear sells papers.
Com’on!
And you call yourself a journalist (er…businessman…)…
I wonder if the market would improve, maybe just a litte, if the media would stop with the scary headlines.
Sincerely,
Selling townhome in ‘08. Hopefully.
Kudos, kudos, kudos to you, Wick!
According to the headlines about real estate these past few weeks, we should all close up shop and call 2008 a loss already. I (and my clients) must have missed the memo because we’re pretty busy viewing homes and writing contracts. Any reporter worth his ink should talk to agents and find that showings are up all over the place.
Maybe tomorrow’s headlines will report on the blizzard we had today.
There was an auction on Jan 1st. The total for the year is more than 5300.
What the article is stating is that not many foreclosures were done on Jan 1st. Some got bumped over to Feb.
Well here’s a friendly tip to you realtors who work in the ‘burbs — Highland Homes will pay realtors $5000 on every contract written between now and April 30, 2008. Specs and build-to-suits, in every single DFW community. You’ll get it in the form of an AmEx gift card at closing.