Home foreclosure postings in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are up 18 percent in the latest filings.

Almost 4,600 homes are scheduled for foreclosure next month, according Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.

That compares with 3,870 postings for August 2007.

Despite the big increase since last year, total foreclosure filings for the D-FW area are below the recent peak in February, when more than 5,300 postings were recorded.

The largest volume of postings for August was recorded in Dallas County, with 2,072 filings. That's an increase of 18 percent from a year ago.

Denton and Collin counties had the biggest percentage gain in foreclosure postings – up about 40 percent from a year ago.

With August postings, the total so far for 2008 in the four-county area is almost 34,000.

"For the first eight monthly foreclosure auctions of 2008, foreclosure posting activity has climbed 21 percent compared to the 27,911 notices filed by this time last year," Foreclosure Listing Service president George Roddy said.

"Foreclosure postings filed on D-FW homes during the first eight months of the year reached another new record-level high," Mr. Roddy said.

And don't look for a slowdown in foreclosures any time soon, said James Gaines of Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center.

"Foreclosures are going to stay high probably through next year and into early 2010," Dr. Gaines said.

The number of home loan defaults will begin to subside only after thousands of subprime loans are refinanced or go into foreclosure, he said.

"It's going to take us a little while to work through those," Dr. Gaines said. "They won't come down completely until we start seeing a bottoming of home prices, and prices start picking back up."

Number of foreclosure filings each month in the four-county area.

January: 3,672
February: 5,315
March: 4,161
April: 4,109
May: 4,426
June: 3,839
July: 3,747
August: 4,582

Source: Foreclosure Listing Service