Archive for the 'California Articles' Category

A number of legislators and residents feel that, with the number of homes being sold at Fresno foreclosure auctions and the amount of properties falling under foreclosures, Fresno, as well as the whole San Joaquin Valley, California, should have gotten a bigger share of the latest federal assistance effort designed to help homeowners all over the U.S.

Under the latest federal assistance initiative, the whole state will receive $476 million to help homeowners who have lost their properties to California home auctions for sale. However, Valley residents feel that their area was somewhat left out in the distribution. The latest effort from the government involves a total of $3 billion that will be spread out to different areas of the U.S. that suffered from the housing market crisis.

According to legislators who represent the Valley, the number of foreclosed homes at auctions in the area makes San Joaquin one of the highest ranked regions nationwide in terms of foreclosure rates. The Valley covers the cities and counties of Modesto, Merced, Stockton and Fresno, all with high rates of foreclosure activities.

In addition to the high number of properties under Fresno foreclosure auctions, there are also smaller counties that contribute to the high rates of foreclosure in the Valley, including Los Banos. These are just some of the factors cited by residents and legislators in their claim that the region deserves a bigger share than what it is expected to receive.

In an effort to address the impact of high numbers of repossessed houses on various regions of the country just like those in several California areas and to help unemployed homeowners keep their homes, the Treasury Department has announced a nationwide assistance initiative that will be financed by a total of $2 billion. In addition, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will release zero interest loans worth $1 billion to be provided to homeowners who are behind in their mortgage loan payments.

The latest effort has received criticisms from several fronts, including officials and legislators from the San Joaquin Valley region. According to them, the government's track record in terms of foreclosure mitigation efforts has not been good. They also criticized the government for allegedly leaving out San Joaquin despite the high rates of foreclosure in the area and the thousands of homes being sold under Fresno foreclosure auctions.

Latest statistics saw Oakland home auctions for sale and foreclosure rates in most metro areas of California declining during the month of July 2010. According to housing industry numbers, the area of Northern San Joaquin Valley recorded some of the most significant declines among the metros of California.

However, analysts have warned against an early celebration as despite the decline, the number of foreclosed properties on offer at house auctions in California is still some of the highest in the whole U.S. But analysts did admit that the fact that fewer houses are getting repossessed and fewer foreclosures are happening during the summer months compared with the same period in 2009 can be seen as something positive for the housing market.

More than the number of properties in foreclosed houses auctions, analysts are worried about the number of homeowners who are delayed in their monthly mortgage payments. According to them, this does not bode well for the second half of the year. However, there are areas in California that demonstrated significant improvements during the month of July.

Foreclosed properties lost to Oakland home auctions for sale were not as high as previous year's numbers. But the county that did really well during July was Stanislaus County. Less than 500 homes fell to foreclosure in Stanislaus in July. Of the 483 total, 373 were repossessed by banks, while 110 were sold at foreclosure auctions. This figure is less than 50% of the total foreclosures recorded in the county in July 2008 when the housing market crisis was at its peak in the area.

In terms of households that are in the first stage of foreclosure, or those that have received their first notice of default, Stanislaus had a total of 591 for July 2010. This is significantly lower than the July 2009 total which was pegged at 1,081 and represents a 45% year-by-year decline. Further decline in foreclosure activities in the area is expected for the rest of the year.

Other metro cities in California that are experiencing declining foreclosure activities are Merced and San Joaquin Valley. Foreclosed dwellings under Oakland home auctions for sale are also fewer for July 2010 compared with July 2009.

The slowdown in Los Angeles foreclosure auctions in June improved home prices and pushed up the sales price median in the county by nearly 5 percent to $335,000 from the June 2009 median price of $320,000.

Foreclosure activity slowed in Los Angeles and in other counties of Southern California, as foreclosure homes made up only about one-third of total house re-sales in June, down sharply from more than 45 percent in June 2009 and far below the record share of 56.7 percent reached in February last year.

The pace of California home auctions also slowed down in June, as the more than 69,000 homes notified of foreclosure filings during the month marked a drop of more than 4 percent compared to filings in May and a stunning drop of nearly 32 percent from the total in June 2009.

For the three-month period ended June, foreclosure postings in California also declined by more than 11 percent from the previous period and by more than 24 percent from total postings in the second quarter of 2009. All in all, there were 340,740 foreclosure postings for the six-month period ended June, and 92,324 units of these or 27.1 percent were bank owned units. A significant portion of these were also properties that were repossessed by banks through Los Angeles foreclosure auctions.

Despite substantial declines in foreclosures, California was still among the top four states in foreclosure charts in the country in June and in the first six months of this year in percentages of filings. Plenty of lenders are still taking back California foreclosed homes at auctions, although the percentage of foreclosure sales statewide has been dropping.

The decline in foreclosures and the surge in house sales in June in Southern California are prompting housing analysts to contend that the market in the region is getting stronger. The nearly 24,000 homes that got sold in the region in June indicate that the region is still a very attractive residential market for buyers of new homes or pre-owned homes and those buying through Los Angeles foreclosure auctions.

A large number of residential units were bought through foreclosure home auction in Los Angeles County in the first quarter, based on home sales data from a research firm.

With 10,823 short sale and foreclosure homes in Los Angeles County sold in the first quarter, the county posted the most number of foreclosures sold in California [...]

Short sales could be slowing down San Jose foreclosure auctions, in addition to other factors like strategic foreclosure control by lenders, based on statements from local housing analysts and realtors.

House sales and prices are climbing up amid Palm Springs foreclosure auctions. The April and May sales figures for new and pre-owned homes showed substantial improvements.

The number of houses posted for Los Angeles home auctions for sale in April declined, allowing home prices to rise significantly during the month.

There were more housing units that went through Sacramento foreclosure auctions in March compared to properties posted for foreclosure auctions a year ago.

Sales of Los Angeles repo homes soared in September because of the high number of first time homebuyers who rushed to buy homes to beat the expiration of the federal $8,000 tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors.

In July, a total of 2,591 notices of foreclosed home auctions were filed by lenders in Orange County, California. The total figures represented a 4 percent increase in the number of notices default from June and 17 percent compared with the same month the previous year.