After a disturbing spike last month, the number of Hays County properties scheduled for foreclosure in June have gone down. However, year-to-date foreclosures are still up in Hays and seven other of the nine counties tracked by Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. (FLS).

The 96 Hays properties, which included 72 listed as residential, that were scheduled for foreclosure in May represented the highest numbers the area had seen in more than three years, the FLS said.

Hays properties scheduled for auction on the first Tuesday of June total 89, which represents a 15 percent decline from last month and an eight percent drop from a year ago.

The declines stand out in the region, the FLS says, as new record highs were set for the first half of the year in Travis, Bell, McLennan, Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties. Only Bastrop County saw a decline, and that was a mere two percent.

FLS President George Roddy Sr. said, “So far this year, from January through the upcoming auctions in June, almost 1,200 foreclosure notices have been served on real estate located in the nine county Central Texas area.”

Roddy said four counties experienced increases of 20 percent or more — 29 percent in Bell County, 24 percent in Comal County and 21 percent in both Bexar and Williamson counties.

In second-quarter postings, Hays’ properties scheduled for foreclosure number 259, compared to 240 last year, an increase of eight percent. That total is nine percent higher than the previous quarter and 13 percent higher than the second quarter of 2006.

So far this year, a total of 496 Hays properties have been listed, a nine percent increase over the 455 listed in the first half of 2007. This year’s to-date total is seven percent higher than in 2006.

“Compared to last month, foreclosure notices filed for the upcoming June foreclosure auctions were down in six of the nine Central Texas counties,” Roddy said. “In total, close to 2,000 postings were filed on Central Texas properties to be auctioned.”

He cautioned, “Although this is welcomed news, it does not change the fact that foreclosure postings are on the high end of the foreclosure cycle and that for a number of consecutive months now, monthly postings have been higher than at the same time last year.”