At least for one month, foreclosure postings have gone down in McLennan County.

The number of properties posted for foreclosure in July stands at 114, a 13 percent drop from the 131 posted in June, according to the Foreclosure Listing Service, which tracks foreclosures statewide.

But the news is not all good.

The number of properties posted for foreclosure this July is up 37 percent from the 83 postings in July of last year. For the first seven months of this calendar year, 819 properties have been posted for foreclosure. That’s up 31 percent from the 625 postings for the same period last year.

George Roddy Sr., president and CEO of Foreclosure Listing Service, said he knows Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure in record numbers. But he also believes repostings are skewing the numbers upward.

He’s seeing more properties being posted a second time. These properties were posted then pulled back before they could be auctioned off on the courthouse steps.

“For the upcoming July foreclosure auction in McLennan County, 46 percent of the residential foreclosure postings are repostings,” Roddy said. The next sale takes place July 7 at the McLennan County Courthouse.

Roddy said this phenomenon is happening for a couple of reasons. Many lenders are trying to negotiate ways to keep people in homes and avoid foreclosure, he said. But they go ahead and post the properties for foreclosure to make them available should the talks fail.

On or before auction day, he said, these lenders pull these properties off the foreclosure list. But they may post them again later if a settlement can’t be reached.

He also said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two huge guarantors of mortgage loans, placed a moratorium on foreclosing on properties for a time. They may have posted properties for foreclosure but did not act. Now that the moratorium has been lifted, they are reposting properties, intent on selling them, Roddy said.

Local real estate agent Kendra Zadnik lists homes that lenders have foreclosed upon. She added “six or seven” new listings this month, she said, “and I think it’s due to Fannie Mae getting back in action.”

She described her listings as nice homes “that you might not expect to be foreclosed upon.”

mcopeland@wacotrib.com

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