Austin Area Feeling the Foreclosure Bite

GEORGETOWN — Alma and Adolfo Vasquez might not appear to be prime candidates for foreclosure. Their 3,100-square-foot home near two golf courses is appraised at nearly half a million dollars. They were far from irresponsible buyers, making a 20 percent down payment after selling their California home in 2006, just before the housing bubble burst.

But by early April, the Vasquez family, slammed by a double whammy of rising property taxes and tough times for Adolfo’s home-renovation business, were three days from losing their home at a foreclosure auction.

“It’s an emotional torture,” Alma Vasquez said. “We never thought we could end up in this situation, but it happened. It’s kind of embarrassing; you don’t want to let your friends or anyone know.”

The conventional wisdom is that Central Texas and Austin in particular — thanks to its dynamic economy — have largely escaped the foreclosure epidemic ravaging states like California, Florida and Arizona. The Austin area’s foreclosure rate is still a fraction of the nation’s: 0.5 percent of properties with active mortgages in May, compared to the nation’s 1.8 percent.

But foreclosures are quietly rising here, according to First American CoreLogic, one of several private companies that compile foreclosure statistics.

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