Foreclosure Listing Numbers Growing in El Paso, Texas

Foreclosure listing numbers have been growing in El Paso, Texas while foreclosure filings are declining in other parts of the state.

In October, residential foreclosure filings in El Paso increased by more than three times compared to the same month last year. According to local analysts, reduced income and unemployment largely caused the rise in foreclosure actions in the area.

Based on data from the Texas Workforce Commission, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in El Paso has risen to 10 percent, an increase from 9.8 percent in September and from just 6.5 percent in October last year.

The commission said that October was the first time the Upper Rio Grande area reached a double-digit jobless rate since June 1999. The rate in El Paso even surpassed the statewide seasonally adjusted rate of 8.3 percent.

According to the workforce data, job losses were highest in the hospitality and leisure sectors, followed by the construction, manufacturing, mining and logging sectors. Job gains, meanwhile, were highest in the government sector.

Foreclosure filings in El Paso soared to 502 units in October, far above 57 filings in September and 159 filings in October last year. Total October filings even surpassed total filings in the three-month period ended September, which reached 338 filings.

Despite the substantial increase in filings in October, local realtors and housing counselors insisted that only a small percentage of total filings will ultimately become foreclosure listing homes. They also added that the increase in October probably resulted from filings in earlier months that were not pursued by lenders because of loan modifications efforts.

According to Suzy Shewmaker Hicks, head of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors, the increase in filings indicated that more families are facing hard times this year than in 2008, but it does not mean that there is an explosion of foreclosures in El Paso. She reiterated that the situation in El Paso is still much better than in other parts of the country.

During the period from January to October, more than 1,900 foreclosure actions were filed in El Paso, an increase of 54 percent from about 1,200 filings during the same period last year.

To help prevent these filings from going into foreclosure, housing counselors from the El Paso YWCA Credit Counseling Service and the El Paso Credit Union Service Organization have been helping troubled homeowners negotiate loan modification and other foreclosure listing prevention options with their lenders.