Collin County Meals on Wheels forced to cut services.

The Dallas Morning News reported today a heartbreaking decision by the Collin County Meals on Wheels to cut back on services for senior citizens.  The article stated that “Evening and weekend deliveries of Meals on Wheels will be eliminated and transportation services for seniors will be scaled back as the Collin County Committee on Aging …

Tags: Collin County Financial crisis Local government Meals on Wheels Non-profit organization

According to an article in the Star-Telegram, over 129,000 Tarrant County homeowners will see their property taxes go up.  This is quite surprising given the high number of foreclosures hitting Texas, especially the Dallas- Fort Worth area.  Slightly less than half of homes assessed for taxes (128,000) experienced a drop in their home’s value. Most of those devaluations were due to foreclosures in the neighborhood.

The article said:

Real estate …

Permalink: /economy/shockingly-taxable-property-values-rise-46-percent-in-tarrant-county/

… a disaster area because of destruction caused by massive, uncontrolled foreclosures in the county. Could Dallas- Fort Worth be the country’s next foreclosures disaster zone?

The article said:

Just five years ago, Port St. Lucie was America’s fastest-growing large city. Then the foreclosure crisis slammed it like a hurricane. Today it sits in one of the hardest-hit counties in the nation. Thousands of houses are empty or unfinished. Neighborhoods are littered with …

Permalink: /foreclosures/county-may-declare-itself-a-disaster-area-because-of-foreclosures/

… noted the highs and lows, stating that, “Residential foreclosure postings for the August Tarrant County auction are down significantly from the July 7 auction, but still higher than they were at this time last year, according to monthly figures. Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service reports 1,545 foreclosure postings for Tarrant County, down 23 percent from May, but up 8 percent from August 2008.”   National statistics were somewhat less promising.  According to the Realty Trac …

… but analysts say that number is still too high.

The article said:

“But filings in the four-county area are still 5 percent higher than a year ago. August’s foreclosure auctions will include 4,796 properties in Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton counties, Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service said Thursday. So far in 2009, 39,917 homes have been posted for foreclosure in North Texas – an 18 percent increase from the first eight months of 2008.”

In July, 6,072 Dallas-Fort …

… in North Texas from a year ago.

The article said:

“There have been 384 postings in Tarrant County through July, down 27 percent from a year ago, according to Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service. In Dallas County, postings are up 27 percent. Those two counties account for 77 percent of the 1,245 postings in the area, which also includes Denton and Collin counties.”

Nationwide, the owners of shopping malls, hotels and offices are succumbing to foreclosure at an alarming rate. …

… present Scam Jam 2008 on Saturday, October 4, 2008 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Conference Center at Collin County Community College, 2800 E. Spring Creek Parkway in Plano.

The Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Dallas will team with local, state and federal agencies to tell consumers how to protect themselves from all types of fraud. The free program will cover internet fraud, health care fraud, elder fraud, identity theft and counterfeit fraud.

(source: …

A Tarrant County grand jury indicted five people, including a home builder, for allegedly engaging in mortgage fraud involving loans worth $13 million.  Chekeelah Phelps, 45, of Mansfield; Clayton Bennett, 66, of DeSoto; Munzer Kawasmi, 30, of Arlington; Deborah Fernie, 48, of Keller; and Kelvin Kidd, 50, of Mansfield are all charged with hatching an elaborate scheme that mostly involved falsified loan …

… Fort Worth residential foreclosures schedule for January remain on the high end.  In Dallas County, there were 2,502 foreclosure postings for December while Tarrant County experienced 1,500 foreclosure postings.  But many mortgage lenders and servicers are holding back a backlog of foreclosures for the holiday which many suspect they will unload come January 2010. Many homeowners who have not paid their mortgage since the summer are reporting silence on the part of their lenders; …

According to an article in the Star-Telegram, the number of foreclosures in Tarrant County have increased by 35 percent since November 2008.

The article said:

“At this pace, and with only December’s postings remaining to be filed, I fully expect D-FW residential postings for 2009 to top 60,000, which will be an all-time record high,” Roddy said in a statement.

The number of foreclosures in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has already tripled since 2000. And that number …

… The article said:

“Some of the most egregious Florida examples come from Sarasota County, where a study this summer that looked at the civil courts system found three of four foreclosure cases that went forward without the proper paperwork.”

As if suffering under toxic mortgage payments isn’t enough, now homeowners have to face foreclosure filings that shouldn’t even take place because of lack of paperwork.  Many homeowners who are delinquent on their mortgage are …

… Press Economic Stress Index… The groups associated with the highest stress scores in each U.S. county are men and women between ages 25 and 29 and women over age 55. That doesn’t necessarily mean having a high percentage of people in those groups causes a county’s economic health to worsen, though the two appear to go hand in hand.”

These two groups are usually the last to be hired and first to be fired…literally.  Also, this group may be reluctant to file bankruptcy once …