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In the space of 1 week, dueling articles on foreclosures in the same paper!
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BU241D1LHF.DTL
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http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-1...bled-borrowers
half full:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BU241D1LHF.DTL
Fewer homeowners in the Bay Area and California headed down the path toward official foreclosure in the first three months of 2010 compared with the prior quarter and with a year ago, according to data released Tuesday.
The research findings correspond with efforts by the federal government and some mortgage lenders to help distressed borrowers with loan modifications and by facilitating short sales, the process in which banks allow homes to be sold for less than what is owed on the mortgage.
In another trend, while mortgage trouble remains more prevalent in lower- and moderate-price areas, it appears to be increasing in some affluent Bay Area ZIP codes.
The number of notices of default, which is the first step in the foreclosure process, declined in both the state and the Bay Area during the most recent quarter ending in March, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm.
The 81,054 notices of default in California were 3,514 fewer than last quarter. Bay Area default notices declined by 77 to 13,517 compared with the same period last year. The Bay Area notices were 30.5 percent lower than the first quarter of 2009, when they were at a record level across the state, according to DataQuick.
"We are seeing signs that the worst may be over in the hard-hit entry-level markets, while problems are slowly spreading to more expensive neighborhoods," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "We're also seeing some lenders become more accommodating to workouts or short sales, while others appear to be getting stricter about delinquencies."
Trustee deeds, the final step of bank repossession, were also down. The state saw 8,203 fewer trustee deeds in the first quarter of 2010, a 16 percent decline. The 6,417 deeds in the Bay Area were down about 1,000 from the previous quarter.
The Obama administration is pushing lenders to reduce homeowners' monthly payments through the $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program.
The White House recently announced major changes to the program as foreclosures continued and critics called the program ineffective. In the coming months, it will expand to include unemployed workers and payments to lenders to reduce the principal owed on mortgages.
One figure that jumps out from Tuesday's DataQuick report is San Francisco County's 91 percent jump in trustee deeds in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the first three months of 2009.
The total number of homes, however, increased only from 101 to 193. The numbers are small, given the volume of homes sold in a given year, according to San Francisco Realtor Eileen Bermingham.
She said there were 3,867 single-family homes and condos (not including new homes) sold in 2009, according to the San Francisco Multiple Listing Service.
"I really don't see the foreclosures bringing down overall values in the city much at all," Bermingham said.
DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said that the annual increase in San Francisco may be the result of lenders finally pushing through defaults long on the books.
"The surge in actual foreclosures looks like it might be catch-up from notice of defaults that have been there for a while," LePage said.
Following a historical pattern across the state, mortgages were least likely to go into default in the first quarter of 2010 in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, according to DataQuick. The probability was highest in Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
The research findings correspond with efforts by the federal government and some mortgage lenders to help distressed borrowers with loan modifications and by facilitating short sales, the process in which banks allow homes to be sold for less than what is owed on the mortgage.
In another trend, while mortgage trouble remains more prevalent in lower- and moderate-price areas, it appears to be increasing in some affluent Bay Area ZIP codes.
The number of notices of default, which is the first step in the foreclosure process, declined in both the state and the Bay Area during the most recent quarter ending in March, according to MDA DataQuick, a San Diego research firm.
The 81,054 notices of default in California were 3,514 fewer than last quarter. Bay Area default notices declined by 77 to 13,517 compared with the same period last year. The Bay Area notices were 30.5 percent lower than the first quarter of 2009, when they were at a record level across the state, according to DataQuick.
"We are seeing signs that the worst may be over in the hard-hit entry-level markets, while problems are slowly spreading to more expensive neighborhoods," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "We're also seeing some lenders become more accommodating to workouts or short sales, while others appear to be getting stricter about delinquencies."
Trustee deeds, the final step of bank repossession, were also down. The state saw 8,203 fewer trustee deeds in the first quarter of 2010, a 16 percent decline. The 6,417 deeds in the Bay Area were down about 1,000 from the previous quarter.
The Obama administration is pushing lenders to reduce homeowners' monthly payments through the $75 billion Home Affordable Modification Program.
The White House recently announced major changes to the program as foreclosures continued and critics called the program ineffective. In the coming months, it will expand to include unemployed workers and payments to lenders to reduce the principal owed on mortgages.
One figure that jumps out from Tuesday's DataQuick report is San Francisco County's 91 percent jump in trustee deeds in the first quarter of 2010 compared with the first three months of 2009.
The total number of homes, however, increased only from 101 to 193. The numbers are small, given the volume of homes sold in a given year, according to San Francisco Realtor Eileen Bermingham.
She said there were 3,867 single-family homes and condos (not including new homes) sold in 2009, according to the San Francisco Multiple Listing Service.
"I really don't see the foreclosures bringing down overall values in the city much at all," Bermingham said.
DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage said that the annual increase in San Francisco may be the result of lenders finally pushing through defaults long on the books.
"The surge in actual foreclosures looks like it might be catch-up from notice of defaults that have been there for a while," LePage said.
Following a historical pattern across the state, mortgages were least likely to go into default in the first quarter of 2010 in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, according to DataQuick. The probability was highest in Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-1...bled-borrowers
2010-04-15 04:32:00 PDT Los Angeles, , United States — (04-15) 04:32 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.
More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.
"We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president.
Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers. In addition, some states enacted foreclosure moratoriums in hopes of giving homeowners behind in payments time to catch up. And in many cases, banks have had trouble coping with how to handle the glut of problem loans.
These factors have helped slow the pace of foreclosures, but now that trend appears to be reversing.
"We're finally seeing the banks start to process the inventory that has been in foreclosure, but delayed in processing," Sharga said. "We expect the pace to accelerate as the year goes on."
In all, more than 900,000 households, or one in every 138 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, RealtyTrac said. The firm based in Irvine, Calif., tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.
Homeowners continue to fall behind on payments because they've lost their job or seen their mortgage payment rise due to an interest-rate reset. Many are unable to refinance because they now owe more on their loan than their home is worth.
The Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has only been able to help a small fraction of troubled homeowners.
About 231,000 homeowners have completed loan modifications as part of the Obama administration's flagship foreclosure prevention program through March. That's about 21 percent of the 1.2 million borrowers who began the program over the past year.
But another 158,000 homeowners who signed up have dropped out — either because they didn't make payments or failed to return the necessary documents. That's up from about 90,000 just a month earlier.
Last month, the administration expanded the program, launching a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans and give jobless homeowners a temporary break. But the details of those programs are expected to take months to work out.
The states with the highest foreclosure rates in the first quarter were Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, with Nevada leading the pack, RealtyTrac said.
Rising home prices and speculation fueled a wave of home construction there during the housing boom. But now the state, particularly around the Las Vegas metropolitan area, is saddled with a glut of unsold homes.
Still, the number of homes in Nevada that received a foreclosure filing dropped 16 percent from the first quarter last year.
All told, one in every 33 homes in Nevada was facing foreclosure, more than four times the national average, RealtyTrac said.
Foreclosure filings rose on an annual and quarterly basis in Arizona, however.
One in every 49 homes there received a foreclosure-related notice during the quarter.
Florida, meanwhile, posted the third-highest foreclosure rate with one out of every 57 properties receiving a foreclosure filing.
California accounted for the biggest slice overall of homes facing foreclosure — roughly 23 percent of the nation's total. One in every 62 properties received a foreclosure filing in the first quarter.
A record number of U.S. homes were lost to foreclosure in the first three months of this year, a sign banks are starting to wade through the backlog of troubled home loans at a faster pace, according to a new report.
RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday that the number of U.S. homes taken over by banks jumped 35 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. In addition, households facing foreclosure grew 16 percent in the same period and 7 percent from the last three months of 2009.
More homes were taken over by banks and scheduled for a foreclosure sale than in any quarter going back to at least January 2005, when RealtyTrac began reporting the data, the firm said.
"We're right now on pace to see more than 1 million bank repossessions this year," said Rick Sharga, a RealtyTrac senior vice president.
Foreclosures began to ease last year as banks came under pressure from the Obama administration to modify home loans for troubled borrowers. In addition, some states enacted foreclosure moratoriums in hopes of giving homeowners behind in payments time to catch up. And in many cases, banks have had trouble coping with how to handle the glut of problem loans.
These factors have helped slow the pace of foreclosures, but now that trend appears to be reversing.
"We're finally seeing the banks start to process the inventory that has been in foreclosure, but delayed in processing," Sharga said. "We expect the pace to accelerate as the year goes on."
In all, more than 900,000 households, or one in every 138 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice, RealtyTrac said. The firm based in Irvine, Calif., tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions.
Homeowners continue to fall behind on payments because they've lost their job or seen their mortgage payment rise due to an interest-rate reset. Many are unable to refinance because they now owe more on their loan than their home is worth.
The Obama administration's $75 billion foreclosure prevention program has only been able to help a small fraction of troubled homeowners.
About 231,000 homeowners have completed loan modifications as part of the Obama administration's flagship foreclosure prevention program through March. That's about 21 percent of the 1.2 million borrowers who began the program over the past year.
But another 158,000 homeowners who signed up have dropped out — either because they didn't make payments or failed to return the necessary documents. That's up from about 90,000 just a month earlier.
Last month, the administration expanded the program, launching a plan to reduce the amount some troubled borrowers owe on their home loans and give jobless homeowners a temporary break. But the details of those programs are expected to take months to work out.
The states with the highest foreclosure rates in the first quarter were Nevada, Arizona, Florida and California, with Nevada leading the pack, RealtyTrac said.
Rising home prices and speculation fueled a wave of home construction there during the housing boom. But now the state, particularly around the Las Vegas metropolitan area, is saddled with a glut of unsold homes.
Still, the number of homes in Nevada that received a foreclosure filing dropped 16 percent from the first quarter last year.
All told, one in every 33 homes in Nevada was facing foreclosure, more than four times the national average, RealtyTrac said.
Foreclosure filings rose on an annual and quarterly basis in Arizona, however.
One in every 49 homes there received a foreclosure-related notice during the quarter.
Florida, meanwhile, posted the third-highest foreclosure rate with one out of every 57 properties receiving a foreclosure filing.
California accounted for the biggest slice overall of homes facing foreclosure — roughly 23 percent of the nation's total. One in every 62 properties received a foreclosure filing in the first quarter.