Home foreclosure rates fell significantly across the country in the first half of 2019.
The number of homes facing foreclosure across the nation fell 18% in the first six months of 2019 compared with the same period last year, according to a survey by Attom Data Solutions.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, home foreclosure filings were down 27% in the first half of the year compared with the first six months of 2018.
"Our midyear 2019 foreclosure activity helps to show an overall view on how foreclosure activity is trending downward," Todd Teta, chief product officer at Attom Data Solutions, said in the report. "Of course, you still have pockets across the nation where foreclosure activity is seeing some flare-ups.
"Looking at the largest markets across the nation with the greatest annual increase in foreclosure starts, 4 out of the 5 markets were in Florida."
Home foreclosure rates have been falling for several years as home prices around the country have risen.
Nationwide home foreclosures are down 82% from where they were in the Great Recession.
In the D-FW area, foreclosure filings are 80% below where they were in 2010 at the worst of the housing market decline.
Attom Data says that there were 4,577 residential foreclosure filings in North Texas in the first half of 2019, compared with 23,575 in the same period of 2010.
Home prices in the D-FW area have risen by more than 60% since the recession adding billions of dollars to the value of local homes.
Higher home values have allowed many owners to refinance or sell their properties when they are threatened with foreclosure.
Some U.S. metro markets still saw increases in foreclosure filings in the first half of 2019. Foreclosure filings were higher than a year ago in Buffalo, N.Y. (up 33%); Orlando (up 32%); Jacksonville (up 18%); Miami (up 7%) and Tampa-St. Petersburg (up 5%).
