More Foreclosures on High-End Homes

The current economic conditions have resulted in an increase in foreclosures around the country, but new data released by the Foreclosure Listing Service Inc. located in Addison has shown that the foreclosure on higher-end homes have seen the largest gain in Bastrop, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties.

Although foreclosures on homes valued at less than $200,000 are still responsible for the bulk of foreclosures within the Austin metro area - with 71% of foreclosed upon homes fitting within this price range - the number of higher end homes that have gone into foreclosure has more than doubled in the first quarter this year.

"Over the last year, the largest gain in first quarter postings was a 219 percent surge in notices filed on luxury homes valued at $500,000 up to $999,999," said George Roddy, who is the president of Foreclosure Listing Service Inc, in an interview with Austin Biz Journals.  "While postings of this home segment comprised just 4 percent of all of the residential postings, first quarter's postings jumped up to 83 notices compared to only 26 postings for the same quarter last year."

According to Roddy, all four of the price categories included in the higher-end housing segment, which includes luxury homes as well as executive homes, saw an increase of 100% or more in the number of foreclosure notices being sent out.  When compared to two data from two years ago, for example, there were only 21 foreclosure postings during the first quarter.  Now, this number has been increased by 295%.