Collin (County, Texas) tops area counties in foreclosure postings

[UpInArms]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13615246&BRD=1426&PAG=461&dept_id=525682&rfi=6

Collin County stands alone among major North Texas counties in posting more residential foreclosures compared to last year.

<snip>

What analysts call "upside-down" loan-to-value ratios have swept the region. About 15 percent of area homes headed for January foreclosure auction fit that definition, meaning that the original loan amount exceeded the assessed value of the home.

<snip>

In Dallas County, 1,295 homes are headed for auction. Falling 11 percent from December's record high of 1,456, posting activity also dropped 11 percent compared to last January. But compared to January 2002 and 2003, postings in Dallas were higher by 18 percent compared to two years ago and 69 percent more than three years ago.

In Tarrant County, January postings totaled 849, dropping 17 percent from December's 1,022 residential postings. Compared to last January, postings of Tarrant County homes have dropped by 13 percent. But in three years, Tarrant postings have surged 68 percent.

...more...

[rainbow4321]

1. Repukeville, USA

Collin County is one of the top three repuke counties in Texas...you think they would have connected the friggin' dots that we were booming in the 90's and went BUST after chimp was appointed. Nope...it went 75%-25% for shrub.

Apparently, on "Black Tuesdays", when the county puts out it's house foreclosure list, many of the ones listed are high $$$$ houses...the have and have mores now have a little less.

Maybe they can watch their chimp of a leader on Jan 20th from a homeless shelter...if he doesn't have the homeless shelters shut down by then, that is.

[DS1]

2. Excellent.

/cupped hands like Mr. Burns

[txdude10]

3. It's no lie...

I live in the heart of Collin County and have noticed the increasing number of new homes put on resale or headed for foreclosures. Even my subdivision has not escaped this disturbing trend. When I moved in three years, the division was vibrant and growing. Now, it is completely the opposite. The reason? foreclosures, caused mostly by loss of jobs. In my street alone, 4 out of the 15 homes have been put up for rent or resale. I guess this is the Bush version of a growing economy.

[Lithos]

9. That sums things up for me as well

I too live in Plano in Collin County and have seen quite a few homes up for sale. The number of vacant homes in the area has definitely increased as the result of either foreclosures or people moving out of the area for work.

L-

[txprog]

4. I too live in Plano, the heart

of Collin County. I have always been amazed as I drive thru neighborhood after neighborhood of expensive homes. How do so many afford to live in these places? I have asked myself many times. The answer is that many of these people are living well beyond their means, not taking care of business. When something goes wrong they are in a position to lose everything. Or at least that's what I believe.

Repuke supply side values indeed. Encourage as much consumption as possible, encourage as much consumer debt as possible, con people into voting for you by saying this is good for the middle and upper middle class, and then do just about everything possible to screw them in the end.

Will enough people ever catch on to help bring change?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

5. I'm in Plano too, and this doesn't surprise me at all.

I see this turnover in my neighborhood all the time and many homes on sale.

[rainbow4321]

6. Too much high tech, not much else...crappy county planning

A couple years ago some county officials admitted that they were wrong in investing so much money and time into ONLY dot com and high tech in the 90's..so when the bubble burst, they had NOTHING to fall back on. Splat went the industry and the local economy/jobs-- mostly due to outsourcing and other lay-offs. Buh-bye to all the local dot commers and tech workers along with the rich execs who now are lucky to get a job at the mall for min. wage.

So then the county powers-that-be announce they are turning to the health care field to boost county $$$. Along comes the new Tenet hospital, Plano Baylor hospital, Presby Allen...Plano alone now has THREE friggin' hospitals..not that the area needs it healthcare wise but it must seem like a SAFE investment to the county beancounters.

Of course, NOW the problem is, the hospitals are head hunting from the other local hospitals cuz of the nursing shortage. Not enough of us to go around. Every week we are hearing that so-and-so is leaving to go to the "new" hospital. Hefty sign on bonuses tend to make people think things are greener on the other side of the fence.

All of the competition makes it great for nurses and other health care providers, but these new facilities/medical jobs don't do shit for the people who are losing their houses and careers from the tech layoffs,etc...it's not like you wake up one day and decide to "try out" a nursing job.

Basically, it seems like now the county has put all of it's egg in a single basket yet again...you can only have so many patients around here..it's not going to do anyone any good to have 4 or 5 hospitals sitting half empty!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. I work in health care here... it boggles my mind that hospitals are

sprung up like freakin' Starbucks in Plano, one on every street corner ("which Presbyterian do you mean? The one on the northeast corner of the intersection, or the one across the street?").

I figure that like Boston Markets, they can't all succeed. It will shake out over the next few years.

Interesting that I lived in San Diego for several years before moving here, and there was considerable population growth (although probably not explosive like Collin Co.), but there were basically no new hospitals that came up during my time there, in fact a couple folded.

I've only lived here a few years, but I kind of get the feeling that Texans with money have a "high roller" mentality. When things are going good, they seriously live large. But they make big bets, and when things go badly, they really take it in the shorts. Houston and the oil and energy industry comes to mind.

When I interviewed for my current job, in 2001, I went to a Halloween party in Richardson. It was hosted by a young Texas Instruments engineer, and attended by young telecom and tech employees, all from TI, Alcatel, Nortel Networks etc. I remember thinking, wow, you can be a young single adult here and buy a nice house in a decent neighborhood for under 200K (I was living in San Diego where such a thing was unthinkable).

I wonder how many of the people from that party still have jobs or are in the area.

[dkofos]

7. Who would have guessed

So many DUers in Plano & Collin co.

[sendero]

8. I live close to Plano in Dallas...

... and I did well in the computer consulting business up until 2002.

Then the bottom dropped out of the software development business here. Many of you might not be aware, this area is near "telecom corridor", an area in Richardson that attracted almost all of the giants of the telecom industry in the 90s. They came down here, built huge facilities, hired programmers from all over the country and then went bust.

When the dot.com bust happened, within a year or two they had laid off half of their staff. Even though I did not work in the telecom field, it killed my business to have thousands and thousands of programmers on the market.

Couple the telecom boom with a myopic mentality that many of these (mostly younger) workers had. They were aggressively courted by these companies, given huge salaries - it never occurred to them that the party could end. Couple that with positively insane home-lending policies that allow a person to buy a $350K house with next to nothing down, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Many more Americans are going to learn, sadly, over the coming years that there is no sugar daddy and if there was he most definitely would not be a freaking Republican.

[shrike]

10. Suck it up, Collin County

Apologies to all the good Democrats there, but as I've said many times on DU, my bleeding heart has bled dry.

[apple_ridge]

11. Coming soon to your town, too!!

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. Next on the block: Southfork

J.R.'s going to be none too happy about this. :grr: