More Time for Texans to Save Foreclosure Properties
April 27th, 2009 by 
Joseph Smith
Now, Texans have 25 more days to find remedies to save their houses from being added to foreclosure properties, with the passage of the Mortgage Foreclosure Deferment Act by the Texas Senate. Previously, homeowners in danger of foreclosure have only 20 days from the date of the foreclosure notice to solve their default problems before their houses are foreclosed.
The law, introduced by State Senator Craig Estes, would also give families a minimum of 14 days to move out of foreclosure properties.
Estes explained that the legislation was not meant to simply bail out defaulting homeowners, but to give more time to both lenders and borrowers to work out something that would lessen the number of foreclosure properties in the state.
Estes has observed that more and more newspaper headlines are presenting foreclosure properties in Texas. He said that the bill will not only help homeowners whose houses are in danger of becoming foreclosure properties, but will also help their neighbors, friends and communities that will be affected by blight and home value depreciation arising from large numbers of foreclosure properties.
The Mortgage Foreclosure Deferment Act was initially suggested by Attorney General Greg Abbott when he was launching his program to combat foreclosure prevention scams. Senator Estes heads the Texas Senate Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of Texas foreclosures increased to 25,259, including 34 notices of defaults; 14,564 notices of trustee sale and 10,661 REO homes. Its foreclosure rate increased by 14.87 from the first quarter of 2008 to 1 house in every 373 housing units.
In the month of February, Texas was eighth nationwide in total number of properties that received foreclosure filings, with 1 house in every 896 receiving a filing.
The Texas counties with the highest number of foreclosure properties in February were Harris County, with 2,133 filings; Tarrant County, with 1,518 filings; Bexar County, with 986 filings; Dallas County, 841 filings; and Travis County, with 427 filings.
To take advantage of the 25-day extension, Texas homeowners whose houses are in danger of becoming real estate properties should spend the time negotiating with their lenders to work out either loan modification or loan refinancing under President Obama’s Making Affordable program.
