Although experts say Denton County likely will still see record monthly foreclosure postings, the county’s net foreclosure posting rate decreased 2 percent compared to last year for the December auction, according to foreclosure analysts.

The slight dip is significant when compared to the net rate of foreclosure postings for Collin County, which was 44 percent, said George Roddy Sr., president of Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service Inc.

“It simply means we’re losing fewer homes due to foreclosure,” Roddy said. “It’s not a significant amount to impact the economy … and we’re still seeing high numbers of foreclosure listings, which is not a good thing.”

Denton County was the only one in the four county Dallas-Fort Worth area that has a decline of net residential postings for December, according to the data.

“The fact that Denton County was the only county in the metro area with a decrease, that certainly bodes well, or better, than the other counties,” Roddy said.

The net foreclosure posting rate omits repeated foreclosure postings on properties in the loan modification process and the short sell of homes, which can be posted multiple times in a given year, Roddy said.

The net rate gives a more accurate version of the foreclosure listing rate, he said.

The loan modification pro­cess usually takes about six months to a year to work through, while banks keep those homes on the foreclosure lists, said Bonnie Brown, a spokeswoman with the listing service.

About 40 percent of the foreclosure properties in Denton County listed this year were addresses that had been previously posted within the past six months, she said.

There were 533 homes listed for December’s foreclosure auction, down from 600 last month, the data stated.

The decrease could be good news, but is likely not reflective of the overall economy, said Terry Clower, director of the Center for Economic Develop­ment and Research at the University of North Texas.

There could be fewer new foreclosures, but they are still happening, he said.

“It could potentially be good news, but we’d need to look at multiple months,” Clower said. “There’s no indication Denton County is positioned better. If people still feel like their jobs are at risk, they’ll behave from that.”

While the dip of net residential foreclosure listings is a step in the right direction, it’s not a trend and it could take more than a year for foreclosure postings to return to previous numbers, Roddy said.

In 2008, only three months had more than 500 foreclosure listings for Denton County, Brown said. But in 10 months this year, the number of listings surpassed 500, she said.