Foreclosures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have soared again, setting a new monthly record for the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Mortgage lenders posted 6,168 foreclosures scheduled for the month of April. This is the only the second time that foreclosures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have topped 6,000, the last time was last July when 6,072 foreclosures were posted. April’s foreclosure posting are an 18 percent increase from a year ago and many more foreclosures are set to come down the pipe as the previous foreclosure prevention program HAMP winds down and shows itself to be a complete failure. Many homeowners who were given temporary mortgage modifications under HAMP are now being denied permanent modifications. Those homeowners will most likely succumb to foreclosure and join the slew of homeowners losing their homes in Dallas-Fort Worth and around the country.
Many analysts held false hope that the foreclosure crisis was improving; however, current evidence points to the possibility that it may worsen as many unemployed workers give up on finding work and many homeowners who are in debt mortgage debt, fail to remain current on their mortgage payments. Foreclosure for these individuals is inevitable and even during bankruptcy some of them may choose to surrender their homes instead of continuing to struggle with high mortgage payments on a home that has lost significant value. The undercurrent problem of the foreclosure crisis is overinflated mortgages and uncooperative mortgage lenders who benefited from government bailouts while failing to do their part to modify clearly toxic mortgages. If our government fails to take a stand and force the hand of mortgage companies who have large amounts of foreclosures, we may experience an even bigger wave of foreclosures coming our way in the near future.