A collaboration between LISC and the Urban Institute has produced a data set with “foreclosure needs scores” within Community Development Block Grant jurisdictions within each state. These scores incorporate measures of subprime lending, foreclosures, delinquency, and vacancies to help state and local officials quickly assess the relative needs of different jurisdictions for neighborhood stabilization funding.
A page linking to the data can be found here.
I have extracted some of the data to indicate the jurisdictions within Texas that are experiencing exceptional problems with subprime lending and foreclosures.
What stands out in the data is the over representation of cities on the Texas Mexico border in each of these top 10 lists. For many years we have observed is that border cities have had a much higher rate of subprime lending than non-border Texas cities. Until recent years the foreclosure rates in these communities have not appeared to be extraordinarily high compared to the rest of the state. I suspect that the recent link would see in foreclosure rates reflect the changing nature of subprime lending — that is to say, more frequently the subprime loans contained predatory terms and involve adjustable rate, as oppose to fixed rate interest rates.
Top 10 Texas jurisdictions with the highest percentages of subprime loans
Pharr 30.21%
Hidalgo County 27.28%
Mission 23.78%
Texas City 23.24%
Laredo 23.07%
San Benito 22.84%
Port Arthur 21.70%
Brownsville 20.89%
Edinburg 20.38%
Pasadena 18.65%
Top 10 Texas jurisdictions with highest percentage of loans 30 days or more delinquent
Laredo 12.90%
Brownsville 11.21%
Texas City 11.21%
Mesquite 11.12%
San Benito 11.00%
Hidalgo County 10.80%
Grand Prairie 10.61%
Dallas County 10.58%
Pharr 10.51%
Orange 9.87%
Top 10 Texas jurisdictions with highest percentage of loans in foreclosure
Brownsville 3.23%
Dallas County 3.07%
Mesquite 3.07%
Texas City 3.03%
San Benito 2.85%
Grand Prairie 2.84%
Pharr 2.79%
Marshall 2.75%
Port Arthur 2.55%
Fort Worth 2.48%
Statewide the data indicates there are almost 1/2 million subprime loans in Texas constituting about 12.5% of all loans. In Texas, 6.98% of loans our 30 days or more delinquent representing 276,770 loans. An estimated 68,041 loans are in foreclosure comprising 1.72% of loans.
