The number of residential foreclosures in Denton County has risen in recent months, according to data provided by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc., but they remain lower than last year.
For June, there were 511 foreclosed residential properties listed in Denton County. The data reflects residential, townhomes and condos located inside the county and does not include commercial property or duplexes, said George Roddy Sr., president of the Addison-based company.
In June 2011, 547 Denton County residences were listed for foreclosure.
“We are starting to see an increase in foreclosure activity after an eight- to nine-month low,” Roddy said. “Up until May, it had been kind of stagnant.”
For the first half of the year, foreclosure listings in North Texas were 21 percent lower than the same six months last year, from 3,529 properties listed in 2011 to 2,782 properties listed in 2012, according to the data.
Roddy said the number of foreclosures should remain steady for the rest of 2012, but he expects more activity in 2013. But even with the number of foreclosures, the housing market is doing fairly well. He said the home inventory, or the estimated time it would take to sell all the homes on the market, is 4 1/2 months in Denton County.
Stacy Curtis, president of the Northstar Bank Mortgage Division, agreed.
“If you have been waiting for the market to improve, it has,” Curtis wrote in an e-mail. “From a months-of-inventory standpoint, the market is the best it’s been in six years.”
He said the market is getting stronger across North Texas.
“Since we have the same number of listings year over year — about 1,450 — that means homes are selling at a faster pace,” Curtis said.
The number of days a home is listed on the market has also dropped from 99 days in April 2011 to 80 days in April 2012, according to a report from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc.
The average sale price of a Denton County home has increased by 21.9 percent from $217,903 in April 2011 to $265,679 in April 2012. The median sales price also increased by 7.6 percent to $185,000, the report stated.
KARINA RAMÍREZ can be reached at 940-566-6878. Her e-mail address is kramirez@dentonrc.com.
