The number of residential foreclosures in Denton County decreased yet again, continuing a trend that has developed over the past few months.

The county has a total of 494 homes posted for foreclosure sale at the Aug. 2 auction, down 12 percent from August 2010, when 561 homes were listed, according to a report released Thursday by Foreclosure Listing Service Inc.

Natalie Kuehler, with Fairway Independent Mortgage, said the recent trend has to do with banks clearing a lot of “shadow inventory” of houses they have already foreclosed on.

“[And] I think a lot of people are doing a better job of getting banks to do a short sale, rather than going all the way into a foreclosure,” she said.

Some neighboring counties also saw a decline in foreclosure postings. Dallas County saw the largest decrease, with a 24 percent drop. Tarrant County experienced the smallest decrease, with a 2 percent drop. Collin County had an 11 percent drop.

Year to date, Denton County saw an 8 percent decrease; Tarrant County saw a 7 percent drop; Collin County saw a 12 percent reduction and rates were down 14 percent for Dallas County.

George Roddy Sr., president of Foreclosure Listing Service, said in news release that although this is welcome news, he’s hesitant to raise his expectations for the future.

Keuhler said no one knows if the trend will continue.

“That truly is hard to predict — it depends on the economy,” she said. “I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to that.”

Staff writer Bj Lewis contributed to this report.

RACHEL MEHLHAFF can be reached at 940-566-6889. Her e-mail address is rmehlhaff@dentonrc.com.