Tide of foreclosures is rising in Houston's flooded housing market

Houston's housing market will be in recovery mode for a while following epic floods from Hurricane Harvey.

But the Bayou City's residential market was already sinking before Hurricane Harvey hit.

Foreclosure postings in the Houston area were up by a staggering 67% even before the storm blew in, according to a new report by Attom Data Solutions.

Nationwide foreclosures were over 21% below where they were a year earlier in August.

Economists and real estate agents predict that Houston foreclosures will rise as some owners walk mortgages on properties that were heavily damaged by flooding and had no insurance.

"The Houston housing market was already showing signs of distress even before Hurricane Harvey hit," said Attom Data Solutions' economist Daren Blomquist.

"Hurricane Harvey will mean even more distress in the Houston housing market over the next year or two, although it may take some time for that to show up in the foreclosure numbers given the foreclosure moratoriums in place."

"Based on sales data that has come in for August so far, we are projecting a 27% year-over-year decline in Houston home sales in August," he said. "By comparison we are projecting a 2% increase in Dallas."

Blomquist predicts that the number of distressed home sales in the Houston area will rise in the next few months.

At midyear, home sales in the Houston area were up about 7.4% from a year earlier, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. And the median prices were 2.6% higher than in 2016.

Tribune Content Agency
Foreclosures Distressed Texas
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