Fewer recording days skew numbers
House puts in place legislation to set up next wave of foreclosures; tax break on forgiven debt could incent mid-tier homeowners to flee without fear
DISCOVERY BAY, Calif., Oct. 17 /PRNewswire/ — ForeclosureRadar (http://www.foreclosureradar.com), the only web site that tracks every California foreclosure with daily updates on foreclosure auctions, issued its monthly California Foreclosure Report today which showed increased foreclosure activity in September in spite of the story the numbers tell. A total of 8,818 properties — with a loan value of $3.6 Billion dollars — were sold at auction statewide in the month of September, compared to August which had a total of 9,477 that equated to $3.86 Billion dollars.
“Although it appears that foreclosure activity has slowed this month, digging deeper into the numbers tells another story,” said founder of ForeclosureRadar, Sean O'Toole. “In the month of August there were 23 recording and auction days. In contrast, September had 19 recording days and only 18 auction days, so we actually saw across the board increases in average daily foreclosure activity.” Adjusting for recording days statewide Notices of Default were up 5 percent in September on an average daily basis, and Notices of Trustee Sale were up 28 percent. Adjusting for auction days, Sales at auction were up 18 percent from August.
California has had a very active foreclosure market and O'Toole predicts that new legislation being considered by the House could result in further increases. The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007 (H.R. 3648) is a measure meant to help address the ongoing turmoil in the housing and lending markets. The popular bill passed 386 – 27 with overwhelming bipartisan support on October 9. Similar legislation is pending before the U.S. Senate. This bill would provide needed tax relief to families by permanently excluding debt forgiven under these circumstances from tax liability and would tighten requirements for excluding taxable gains on vacation and rental property. According to O'Toole this potentially delivers a double hit to the housing market by eliminating a barrier keeping mid-tier, debt strapped home owners from walking away from their homes which he expects will result in more foreclosures, while also reducing demand for second homes which has helped support prices to date.
% %
Change Population Change Change
in Per Aug Sept
Rank Rank County NDF NTS Sales Sale 2007 2006
1 2 MODOC COUNTY 6 5 14 703 133% 600%
2 -1 RIVERSIDE COUNTY 2968 1873 1268 1,540 -2% 593%
3 1 STANISLAUS COUNTY 678 372 276 1,864 -8% 852%
4 5 MERCED COUNTY 304 164 127 1,943 21% 958%
5 -3 SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY 1021 574 342 1,948 -16% 584%
6 -1 SACRAMENTO COUNTY 1706 1078 710 1,952 -11% 323%
7 -1 YUBA COUNTY 76 48 32 2,182 -16% 256%
8 0 SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY 2180 1406 863 2,308 -6% 828%
9 1 CONTRA COSTA COUNTY 1058 575 423 2,434 -1% 629%
10 -3 SOLANO COUNTY 501 257 168 2,517 -20% 522%
11 3 SUTTER COUNTY 85 42 34 2,690 10% 580%
12 3 KERN COUNTY 719 431 289 2,699 10% 681%
13 0 LAKE COUNTY 23 14 23 2,787 5% 283%
14 -2 PLACER COUNTY 268 152 105 3,014 -15% 400%
15 24 TEHAMA COUNTY 19 11 19 3,239 138% 850%
16 -5 SAN BENITO COUNTY 56 29 16 3,602 -30% 1500%
17 10 IMPERIAL COUNTY 106 62 44 3,786 42% 4300%
18 -2 MADERA COUNTY 113 68 36 4,011 -16% 1100%
19 -1 SAN DIEGO COUNTY 1871 1148 721 4,254 -17% 296%
20 34 LASSEN COUNTY 12 8 8 4,432 700% ND
21 2 FRESNO COUNTY 565 359 198 4,543 3% 692%
22 -2 MONTEREY COUNTY 317 142 88 4,828 -21% 1000%
23 8 TUOLUMNE COUNTY 26 15 12 4,853 20% 71%
24 0 VENTURA COUNTY 454 278 160 5,108 -1% 344%
25 7 ALAMEDA COUNTY 786 409 284 5,286 11% 457%
26 -1 YOLO COUNTY 124 64 35 5,438 -3% 250%
27 -6 AMADOR COUNTY 21 9 7 5,448 -30% 250%
28 -9 EL DORADO COUNTY 96 70 31 5,684 -35% 182%
29 1 SANTA BARBARA COUNTY 197 107 74 5,698 0% 393%
30 -1 TULARE COUNTY 204 109 67 6,278 -11% 570%
31 -9 SHASTA COUNTY 87 55 27 6,722 -37% 800%
32 4 SONOMA COUNTY 254 116 68 7,058 -3% 353%
33 4 LOS ANGELES COUNTY 4673 2694 1442 7,105 -3% 571%
34 -1 ORANGE COUNTY 1213 739 416 7,385 -20% 486%
35 5 NAPA COUNTY 65 30 17 7,908 0% 750%
36 2 BUTTE COUNTY 95 46 26 8,354 -16% 420%
37 -2 NEVADA COUNTY 40 30 10 10,007 -33% 233%
38 10 MENDOCINO COUNTY 23 9 9 10,049 50% 800%
39 3 SANTA CRUZ COUNTY 103 37 26 10,090 -7% 2500%
40 -6 SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY 93 51 24 10,968 -41% 167%
41 8 KINGS COUNTY 53 26 13 11,364 44% 160%
42 1 SANTA CLARA COUNTY 582 285 155 11,440 -17% 496%
43 1 SISKIYOU COUNTY 13 2 4 11,537 0% 300%
44 1 SAN MATEO COUNTY 170 76 61 11,871 3% 259%
45 1 MARIN COUNTY 60 29 16 15,834 -11% 1500%
46 9 MARIPOSA COUNTY ND ND 1 18,216 ND ND
47 -19 COLUSA COUNTY 17 4 1 21,512 -75% 0%
48 5 GLENN COUNTY 3 1 1 28,651 0% ND
49 2 SAN FRANCISCO COUNTY 96 53 24 33,278 -25% 140%
50 -9 CALAVERAS COUNTY 41 5 1 45,711 -80% ND
51 1 HUMBOLDT COUNTY 37 11 2 66,263 -60% ND
CALIFORNIA FORECLOSURE REPORT METHODOLOGY
Rankings are based on population per foreclosure sale. NDF indicates the number of Notices of Default that were filed at the county, and NTS indicates filed Notices of Trustee Sale. Sales indicates the number of properties sold at foreclosure auction. Percentage changes are based on Sales. The data presented by ForeclosureRadar is based on county records and individual sales results from daily foreclosure auctions throughout the state — not estimates or projections. Percentage changes are based on monthly sales not daily averages and therefore do not reflect the impact of the differences in number of auction and recording days between periods.
ABOUT FORECLOSURERADAR.COM
ForeclosureRadar is the only web site that tracks every foreclosure in California with daily updates on all foreclosure auctions. ForeclosureRadar features unprecedented tools to search, manage, track and analyze preforeclosure, foreclosure auction, short sale and bank owned real estate. The web site was launched in May 2007 by Sean O'Toole, who spent 15 years building and launching software companies before entering the foreclosure business in 2002 where he has successfully bought and sold more than 150 foreclosure properties. ForeclosureRadar is an indispensable resource for real estate agents, brokers, lenders, investors, mortgage brokers, attorneys and other real estate professionals specializing in the California real estate market.
SOURCE ForeclosureRadar.com
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