Residential foreclosure postings in Denton County rose for the upcoming February auction, surging past the 500 mark for the fourth time in 13 months.

A total of 540 residential foreclosures were filed, up from the 479 posted for the January auction. However, the numbers are down from last year, when 566 residential postings were listed for the February 2008 auction, according to reports from Foreclosure Listing Service Inc.

After running neck and neck in recent months, Collin County surged ahead of Denton County with a record 673 residential postings for that county’s upcoming auction.

An increase in homeowner association filings hiked numbers in Collin County, according to George Roddy Sr., president of Foreclosure Listing Service.

“We’re seeing more and more, which is an indicator that people cannot or choose not to pay their homeowner dues,” he said.

Though numbers are up for February in Denton County, Roddy said he doesn’t expect to see them continue to increase.

“I think there is going to be some impact from loan modification programs,” he said, adding that Fannie Mae’s moratorium in late November to postpone foreclosure proceedings would also have an impact.

“We’re probably going to see a big pickup in bankruptcy filings if the bill goes through to allow bankruptcy judges to modify loans,” he said.

Democratic lawmakers reached a deal with Citigroup Inc. earlier this month on a plan to let bankruptcy judges alter home loans in an effort to prevent foreclosures and urged other lenders to follow suit.

The lawmakers aimed to attach the plan to President-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus legislation, adding that the change in bankruptcy law could ease the foreclosure crisis that has dragged the economy into the worst recession in decades.

“On the negative side, you have job loss that probably will take away any real benefit that we have seen from loan modifications,” Roddy said.

Denton has seen recent announcements of about 250 layoffs from three manufacturing companies — Peterbilt Motor Co., Victor Equipment and Trinity Industries.

“As it stands, the negative outweighs the positive,” he said. “It’s status quo. If you look over the past six months in Denton County and take an average on postings, that’s pretty much where it’s going to be for the next six months to a year.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

DAWN COBB can be reached at 940-566-6879. Her e-mail address is dcobb@dentonrc.com  .