Foreclosures are back in Harris County, after a year's delay by executive orders

Harris County hadn’t held its foreclosure auction for more than a year. Then, to the surprise of investors, homeowners, lawyers and at least one renter, Tuesday morning the auction was back on. Citing health concerns, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo has been quietly postponing real estate foreclosures through executive orders, shutting down the facility where those auctions are held and providing relief to struggling homeowners. That came to an end Tuesday when, for the just the second time since April 2020, hundreds of properties were for sale, including many homes being foreclosed on by homeowners associations, which were not impacted by foreclosure moratoriums, and commercial properties. “It was a surprise, because it’s been canceled so last minute for so many months” said David Deaton, an investor who buys homes both to flip and to rent.

Every month since April of 2020, with the exception of June, the auction was canceled by executive order, usually days before it was scheduled to take place. On Friday, the last business day before the auction, the Foreclosure Prevention Project for the nonprofit Lone Star Legal Aid searched the county’s site for an executive order canceling June’s auction. None appeared. Then a member of the team spotted a Facebook post from the Harris County Tax Assessor announcing on Friday at 2:35 p.m. that the foreclosure auction for delinquent property tax sales would be taking place the next business day. That, said Amir Befroui, the project’s managing attorney, has made it very difficult to take legal action on behalf of homeowners who are being wrongfully foreclosed on. Following the holiday weekend, the district court would only be open for two hours before the auction began to approve an order temporarily restraining a home from being sold. And during a time when home inventories are at historic low, many new investors present at the auction were eyeing what they saw as deals at the auction. Some longtime investors complained of prices being driven to unsustainable highs. “Since the inventory is low, what we have here is a panic-buying situation,” said Reggie Nelson, a real estate broker who also flips and rents houses.