Despite mortgage companies efforts to streamline and speed-up programs designed to avert foreclosure, Texas homeowners are quickly running out of time due to the state’s fast-track foreclosure process. In other states, foreclosure can take as long as four months; but Texas’ foreclosure process can take as little as 41 days to complete.
That’s the quickest foreclosure process in the country. Current foreclosure laws in Texas only give homeowners 20 days to pay off the default balance of their mortgage and avert foreclosure. The state Attorney General Gregg Abbott plans to introduce legislation next week that could double the amount of time given to homeowners facing foreclosure . If the new legislation is approved it would give homeowners 45 days to fix their mortgage problems and avoid foreclosure.
The short amount of time given to homeowners facing foreclosure is probably the main reason Dallas-Fort Worth has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country. The bottom-line is that 20 days is not enough time to fix a foreclosure issue, especially when trying to renegotiate the terms of a subprime mortgage. By the time many homeowners have received new loans, the foreclosure process has already started.