Tom Mowle, El Paso County Public Trustee, whose office handles foreclosures for the county, said the county’s foreclosure rate is slowly heading in the right direction.”The real good news is that we’re seeing more foreclosures getting withdrawn or defaults cured by their owners than we used to,” Mowle said. “Fewer homes are being sold at auction, so that’s a good thing.”Compared to a year ago, the foreclosure numbers in El Paso County are down 10 to 15 percent, said Fred Crowley, associate professor of economics at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.”Foreclosure ruins people’s credit ratings, undermines the value of other homes in the area. If others need to move, they can’t sell their homes because they’re upside down in their mortgage,” Crowley said. “Anything you can do to stabilize the housing market contributes to a better economy.”Mowle said he expects a final wave of loan resets in the second half of the year, running through 2011.”At that point, all of the unusual lending arrangements will have worked their way through the system,” Mowle said.”Right now, interest rates are very low, so loans are not going to reset to a high rate, and that’s good news, too.”According to www.elpasopublictrustee.com, from the beginning of the year through May 31, 106 homes entered foreclosure in the 80831 ZIP code.
