Published: August 19, 2008 11:07 am      

712 foreclosures so far

Hays faring better than some other Central Texas counties

San Marcos — Who knew Dr. Evil was doing business in Hays County? More correctly, someone making a pun on the villain from the “Austin Powers” movies was in business here.

Dr. Evil Property Management LLC owns one of 73 Hays properties that are scheduled for foreclosure next month.

According to figures released on Friday by the Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. of Addison, Hays properties scheduled for public auction Sept. 2 represent a six percent increase over the 69 properties foreclosed last September.

The figure was unchanged from August but amounted to a 17 percent decrease from properties listed in September 2006 and a 10 percent decrease from September 2005 foreclosures.

Third quarter postings, those filed in July, August and September, totaled 216 for Hays County compared to 192 for the third quarter of 2007, which is an increase of 13 percent.

Including the September listings, a total of 712 Hays properties have been listed for foreclosure this year, compared to 647 during the first nine months of 2007, or an increase of 10 percent.

FLS tracks nine Central Texas counties as well as the Austin and San Antonio metro areas. The highest monthly increase, 69 percent, was in Guadalupe County. Both Travis and Bell counties saw monthly increases of 45 percent; Williamson, 34 percent; Austin metro, 33 percent; Comal, 29 percent; San Antonio metro, 19 percent; Bexar, 16 percent; McLennan, 11 percent; and Bastrop, seven percent.

In year-to-date postings, the biggest increase was in Bell County at 34 percent. Travis County saw an increase of 26 percent; Williamson, 24 percent; San Antonio metro and Bexar County, 22 percent; Austin metro 21 percent; Comal, 20 percent, Guadalupe, 17 percent and McLennan, 12 percent.

The Sept. 2 auction will be held on the steps of the Hays County Courthouse.