California sees record $5 billion in foreclosure sales

DISCOVERY BAY
November 20, 2007 5:32am

October foreclosure sales increased by 40 percent from September with a total of 12,336 properties – with a loan value of $5 billion -- sold at auction statewide, according to figures compiled by ForeclosureRadar.

The Discovery Bay-based company operates a Web site that it says tracks every California foreclosure on a daily basis.

The October figure is a 568 percent increase over the same period in 2006.

There were 8,818 properties sold in September in foreclosure auctions with a value of $3.6 Billion dollars, according to ForeclosureRadar.

“We see no sign of a foreclosure peak at this point, and we don't expect to see one until the third or fourth quarter of 2008 at the earliest,” says Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar.

(Mr. O’Toole talks about the report and why he thinks the market may be getting more attractive for investors in an CVBT Audio Interview. Please click on the link below to listen or to download to your iPod or PC.)

“The sales we are seeing now are from missed payments in March. So current auction sales really have not yet been impacted by either August’s liquidity crunch or the ARM reset peaks this month and again in March 2008,” he says.

The October ForeclosureRadar report notes that notices of default were up 11.9 percent though on a daily average basis they were down 8 percent due to the limited recording days in September. Notices of sale were up 33.5 percent to 18,929 – compared to 14,000 in September and 13,500 in August. Sales were up 39.9 percent from September.

The report also notes that third parties purchased 382 properties versus 11,953 that went back to the bank.

While defaults have been fairly flat, a far higher percentage of defaults are having notices of sale filed and a higher percentage of notices of sale are resulting in auctions, according to ForeclosureRadar.

Daily average sales went from $189 million a day in September to $216 million a day in October, a 13.8 percent increase, it says.

Comments on this story

Maher Soliman 5/29/08 4:01 AM
It's a situation going from bad to worse. And there is not much of a underground industry like others want to believe.... outside of an occasional scam or two against unsuspecting borrowers. Here however is the real take on things. I comment after 20 years of serving the secondary and servicing these loans. Lenders are so deep into this mess it's almost as if they can do no wrong. Everything they are asked by government ot do is being avoided in pursuit for a foreclose at any cost. it's like lets wrap things up and get on with it. However, they will give in , and will concede, and lenders will capitulate if you meet them on there own terms. Do it through us an attorney, or let us at www.borrowerhotline.com or go elsewhere but know this...DO SOMETHING! They will meet you half way if properly challenged. And half way is avoiding foreclosure and reducing your mortgage by 50%. msoliman@borrowerhotline.com

jason 6/13/08 7:35 PM
California is getting rattled with foreclosures, left and right homes are emptying. There was CA foreclosure report that listed the top foreclosure area http://www.realtystore.com/blog/2008/05/foreclosure-flood-1000-auctions-per-day-in-california-la-times/ You'd think that CA is bad but lately the worst place is Nevada