Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Yeah, but the number of foreclosure proceedings initiated by lenders during the July-September quarter was up 19 percent from the previous three months. Meaning what? Meaning there continues to be a logjam between the beginning and end of the foreclosure process. As to why, well, pick your excuse: the government pushing mortgage modification efforts and the banks being overwhelmed with foreclosure cases are among the favorites. Whatever the cause, the net effect is lots of confusion and finger-pointing. From Dataquick press release:
"Over the past year, with some minor ups and downs, financial institutions and their servicers have been processing a fairly steady number of defaults each quarter. That probably has more to do with their capacity to process defaults, than with higher or lower levels of incoming distress," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "Policies can vary on how to use the formal foreclosure process in taking homes back and reselling them. It would be nice to think that servicers are carefully following all the rules and regulations, but in the real world there are differences of interpretation, as we've seen in the news recently. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out in fourth-quarter trends," he said.
Defaults are still concentrated among lower-priced homes in lower-income neighborhoods. California homeowners were a median five months behind on their payments when the lender filed a notice of default. The borrowers owed a median $15,156 in back payments on a median $310,000 mortgage.
Notices of Default
Houses and condos
County/Region 2009Q3 2010Q3 Yr/Yr%
Los Angeles 21,850 16,189 -25.9%
Orange 7,436 4,938 -33.6%
San Diego 8,702 5,869 -32.6%
Riverside 12,113 8,982 -25.8%
San Bernardino 9,833 7,429 -24.4%
Ventura 2,146 1,643 -23.4%
Imperial 692 411 -40.6%
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.