Foreclosures Decline Again, But California #3 Worst State
California, Surf, Sun, Fun, Foreclosures. California is often near the top for many things. Sometimes that is good. In the case of foreclosures, it is very bad!
According to RealtyTrac the foreclosure property marketplace, April saw foreclosure filings default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessionson 219,258 U.S. properties, a 9 percent decrease from March and a 34 percent decrease from April a year ago.
James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac CEO reported that foreclosure activity decreased for the seventh straight month in April. Foreclosure activity is now at a 40-month low. Unfortuinately, the slowdown appears to be largely the result of massive delays in processing foreclosures rather than the result of a housing recovery that is lifting people out of foreclosure.
“The first delay occurs between delinquency and foreclosure, when lenders and services are no longer automatically pushing loans that are more than 90 days delinquent into foreclosure but are waiting longer to allow for loan modifications, short sales and possibly other disposition alternatives,” Saccacio continued. “Data from the Mortgage Bankers Association shows that about 3.7 million properties are in this seriously delinquent stage. The second delay occurs after foreclosure has started, when lenders are taking much longer than they were just a few years ago to complete the foreclosure process.”
The average foreclosure process in California took 330 days for foreclosures completed in the first quarter, up from 262 days in the first quarter of 2010 and more than double the average of 134 days it took in the first quarter of 2007.
Overall, foreclosure activity in California was down monthly and annually in April, but a 22 percent month-over-month jump in REOs helped keep the state’s foreclosure rate at the third highest among all states for the sixth consecutive month. One in every 240 California properties received a foreclosure filing in April.
Ten states accounted for 70 percent of U.S. foreclosure activity in April, led by California with 55,869 properties receiving a foreclosure filing during the month.
RealtyTrac reports that seven of the 10 highest metro foreclosure rates were in California cities, led by Modesto at No. 2, with one in every 136 housing units receiving a foreclosure filing in April. Other California cities in the top 10 were Stockton at No. 3 (one in every 138 housing units), Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 4 (one in every 145 housing units), Bakersfield at No. 5 (one in every 151 housing units), Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville at No. 6 (one in every 166 housing units), Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 8 (one in every 175 housing units), and Merced at No. 10 (one in every 195 housing units).
