Foreclosures WAY DOWN in El Paso (YEAH!!!)

NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY IN EL PASO- this just shows that our market is not like most of the country:

El Paso foreclosures fall 52%
By Vic Kolenc / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 04/17/2008 12:00:00 AM MDT


El Paso continues to see a declining number of home foreclosure filings while foreclosures continue to skyrocket nationally.
El Paso had 328 homes in some stage of foreclosure in the first three months of this year, down 52.3 percent from the 688 foreclosure filings for the same period last year, show data from RealtyTrac, a California company which tracks foreclosures nationally. Filings decreased 24.5 percent in March.

Meanwhile, home foreclosures increased 58 percent in the United States in the first three months of this year compared to the same time last year. Foreclosure filings increased 57 percent in March.

Foreclosure filings are decreasing in a few areas around the nation, especially in Texas, where the housing market has been more stable than in other parts of the nation, said Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac spokesman.

"El Paso seems a little more dramatic than some other areas in terms of the downward trend," Blomquist said.

Texas had a 5.5 percent decline in foreclosure filings in the first three months of this year and a 16.1 percent decline in March, RealtyTrac data show.

"We see a lot of foreclosures in areas where (home) prices skyrocketed out of control, and people couldn't afford the homes, but people were able to get into homes because of the (past) loan products out there," Blomquist said.

Pam Sparks, who oversees the mortgage loan department at Pioneer Bank in El Paso, said El Paso's foreclosure decline "is not surprising. I think that's because we've always been a fixed-rate (mortgage) community, and that's kept El Paso out of trouble."

Jose Escobedo, head organizer in El Paso for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, which counsels people with mortgage troubles, said the RealtyTrac data is "encouraging."

But Acorn continues to see an increase in the number of people coming into its El Paso office with mortgage problems and trying to avoid foreclosure, Escobedo said.

For more information: www.realtytrac.com.


Heading down:
Foreclosure filings in El Paso for the first quarter in recent years, and percentage change from previous year:

2006: 775, up 37.2 percent.

2007: 688, down 11.2 percent.

2008: 328, down 52.3 percent.
Source: RealtyTrac