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Foreclosures in Silicon Valley continue to climb
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2009 Jul 14, 7:03am 1,391 views 0 comments
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Not something I normally like to wish upon people, but it's required to get back to 1996 "normal".
Link...
Foreclosures in Silicon Valley continue to climb
By Pete Carey
pcarey@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/14/2009 12:00:00 AM PDT
Updated: 07/14/2009 01:21:11 PM PDT
By Pete Carey
Foreclosures continued to climb in Silicon Valley last month, as banks again increased the pace at which they sold homes taken back from owners behind on their payments.
There were 591 foreclosures in Santa Clara County in June, up 22 percent compared with May, according to ForeclosureRadar, a Discovery Bay company that tracks California foreclosure activity. Foreclosures were up 63 percent in May from April.
In a sign that the trend would continue, notices of default — the first step leading to foreclosure — rose by 11.5 percent.
There was a sharp decline in the number of notices of trustee sale, the second step toward foreclosure. They were down 28 percent, dropping almost from the day that the California Foreclosure Prevention Act took effect.
Though expected to have little effect on foreclosure activity, the new law clearly is having an immediate impact but it is unclear how long that will last. The law — which went into effect June 1 — precludes a lender or servicer from filing a notice of sale for an additional 90 days from the beginning of the foreclosure process, but exempts lenders that have loan modification programs. Nearly all of them have such programs.
However, the "start of the pipeline," notices of defaults, has been at record levels for months, according to Sean O'Toole of ForeclosureRadar. "That clearly indicates we're not through with the
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foreclosure problem," he said, adding that banks are processing "about the limit of what they can handle in a month.''
Santa Clara County still ranks as one of the lowest in the state in foreclosures per population, according to O'Toole. The county's ranking is unchanged at 45th among 54 counties.
The region's foreclosure activity tracked that of the state, which saw an increase of 24.7 percent in foreclosure sales following a 31.9 percent jump in May and a 35 percent increase in April.
Sales of foreclosed properties to third parties were up 18.3 percent in the state, a sign that prices were reaching a bottom. Opening bids were 39 percent lower than the loan balance, and 46 percent of sales were at discounts of 50 percent or more from the original sales price.
#housing