After spiking last month, the volume of home foreclosure postings has eased in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

But the number of homes facing forced sale in December is still 12 percent ahead of a year ago, Foreclosure Listing Service said Thursday.

Foreclosure postings set a record in October of almost 4,000 homes – 49 percent more than a year earlier.

About 3,500 homes are now scheduled for foreclosure in early December.

"We had a decline from last month, and that's about as good as it gets," said George Roddy, president of the Addison-based statistical firm. "It reaches a point where it has to level out, and that's probably what is happening.

"The numbers are still incredibly high."

Dallas County and Rockwall County had the biggest increases in foreclosure postings – up more than 20 percent in both counties.

Collin County saw a 12 percent drop in postings from a year ago.

Although the local economy is strong, many homeowners are being forced out of their houses because of high debt levels and increases in mortgage rates and taxes.

"We have more foreclosures than we have had in a long time," said Sherryl Wesson with Ebby Halliday Realtors, who blames lax lending standards for some of the problems.

Not all of the homes posted for foreclosure each month are sold.

In many cases the sales are delayed or the borrower reaches a new debt agreement.

During all of 2006, 38,809 homes have been posted for foreclosure in the four-county area. That's up 19 percent from 32,513 postings in 2005.

"Last year was bad. This is worse," Mr. Roddy said.

While Texas has led the nation in foreclosures during the last year, California and Florida are now at the top of the list, according to a report released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc. of San Francisco.

Nationwide, more than 1 million U.S. homes have been threatened with foreclosure this year, according to RealtyTrac.

E-mail stevebrown@dallasnews.com