On the block

By Anita Miller
News Editor

September 23, 2008 11:39 am

— Wall Street is physically a long ways from the heart of Texas; but the meltdown in the housing market appears to be making that distance disappear.
Hays and eight other Central Texas counties tracked by the Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. (FLS) will have more properties slated for public auction next month that this, and of the nine counties, five will see a monthly increase of 50 percent.
A total of 80 Hays properties are scheduled to be auctioned off on Oct. 7. That figure represents 19 percent more properties scheduled for foreclosure than in October 2007 and a 10 percent increase over properties foreclosed on this month.
Including those scheduled for October 792 Hays properties have been listed for foreclosure, 11 percent more than for the first 10 months of 2007.
October marks the sixth time this year that 80 or more Hays properties have been listed.
The largest increase in October listings was a 78 percent spike in Bell County. Travis County’s listings increased by 75 percent. Williamson County has a 70 percent increase and in McLennan County, the jump is 57 percent.
In Comal County, 66 foreclosures have been listed for October, a jump of 57 percent from a year ago. Comal foreclosures have risen 24 percent so far this year above the number of properties listed by this time last year.
Guadalupe County has 57 properties listed for October auction, up 33 percent from a year ago.
So far this year 534 Guadalupe properties have been listed, up 19 percent from 2007.
Caldwell County is not among those tracked.
FLS tracks postings of all property types.
Foreclosure auctions are held the first Tuesday of each month on the north steps of the Hays County Courthouse.