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Fresno California Foreclosure Rate Down

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:41:36 +0000

The foreclosure rate dipped last month compared with a year ago in the Fresno area, according to CoreLogic.

For the month of June, the real estate data analysis firm said the rate of foreclosures among local mortgages was 2.76%, an improvement from 3.54% in June 2009. CoreLogic said foreclosure activity last month was slightly lower in the Fresno area compared with the national rate of 3.06%.

Meantime, the firm said the local mortgage delinquency rate increased last month compared with a year ago, with 11.22% of borrowers falling 90 days or more overdue on their payments. That compared with a rate of 9.91% in June 2009.

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Some Bargains at California Auctions

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:15:55 +0000

A national company has auctioned 250 homes on Sunday and Monday at the Sacramento and Santa Clara convention centers, generating about $23.5 million.REDC, the nation’s largest residential real estate auction company, handled the auctions, with the average house selling for $94,000.The four-county Sacramento region has been one of the hardest-hit by foreclosures in the nation, according to several industry trackers.

A couple of examples of bank foreclosed-to-auctioned properties in Sacramento:

• A house at 101 Del Verde Circle #1 sold for $32,500, 86 percent less than the peak value of $223,500.

• A house at 1660 Grand Ave. sold for $37,500, 84 percent less than the peak value of $225,000.

• A house at 700 Norwich Court sold for $50,000, 77 percent less than the peak value of $221,300.

“First-time homeowners and investors walked away with some incredible bargains,” REDC chief executive officer Jeff Frieden said in a news release Tuesday. “The auctions are a big boost to the local economy. When a house sits vacant, no one is paying a mortgage, property taxes, nor gas, electrical and water bills …”

Irvine-based REDC has auctioned more than 20,000 homes for a total of almost $900 million this year, including about $100 million in Northern California.

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California Bank President to Talk at New York Conference

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 15:14:37 +0000

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, Jul 22, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) — First California Financial Group, Inc. today announced that C. G. Kum, President and Chief Executive Officer and Ron Santarosa, Chief Financial Officer, will presenting at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods 2010 Community Bank Conference in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on Wednesday, July 28, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Interested parties may listen to the presentation through a live audio webcast accompanied by the presentation slides by visiting the company’s Web site at www.fcalgroup.com. Listeners are encouraged to visit the Web site at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the scheduled presentation to register, download and install any necessary audio software. For those unable to listen to the live webcast, the presentation will be archived on the Web site for 60 days following the conference presentation.

About First California First California Financial Group, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!fcal/quotes/nls/fcal (FCAL 2.54, -0.01, -0.39%) is the holding company of First California Bank. Celebrating 31 years of business in 2010, First California is a regional force of strength and stability in Southern California banking with assets of $1.45 billion and led by an experienced team of bankers. The bank specializes in serving the comprehensive financial needs of the commercial market, particularly small- and middle-sized businesses, professional firms and commercial real estate development and construction companies. Committed to providing the best client service available in its markets, First California offers a full line of quality commercial banking products through 17 full-service branch offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. The holding company’s Web site can be accessed at www.fcalgroup.com. For additional information on First California Bank’s products and services, visit www.fcbank.com.

More Money to Prevent Foreclosures Isn’t Working Well

Sun, 25 Jul 2010 02:11:33 +0000

By: DAVID SHERFINSKI
Examiner Staff Writer
July 25, 2010

Area governments are racing to dole out money to shore up foreclosure-ridden neighborhoods as a congressional deadline approaches.

Virginia as of July 12 had allocated more than half of the $38.7 million it received through the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, established to shore up communities hit by foreclosures and abandoned properties. Four months earlier, the state had allocated only about a quarter of the funding.

The trend holds true for Fairfax and Prince William counties. Prince William had allocated about 62 percent of its $2.56 million and Fairfax had allocated about 44 percent of its $2.8 million, compared with one-fourth in March.

Over the last six months, there has been “a pretty steep increase in the obligation rate,” said Phillip Bush, a program director at Enterprise Community Partners, which provides financing and expertise to community-based organizations throughout the country. Nationally, about 70 percent of the $3.92 billion has been allocated, compared with about 38 percent in March.

Congress has required that states and localities allot their money from the first round of funding by September.

Montgomery County used its funds in spots that had been hit hard by foreclosures, including the Germantown and Glenmont areas. The county assigned all of its funding in March, plus $2.5 million more from the state, according to Rick Nelson, director of the county’s Department of Housing and Community Affairs. As a result, Montgomery received an extra $300,000 from the state.

Prince George’s County, which has consistently had one of the highest foreclosure rates in the state, has assigned more than 90 percent of the $10.9 million it received.

In the District, $2.8 million is going toward the redevelopment of the Ivy City neighborhood in Northeast. D.C.’s Department of Housing and Community Development also was awarded about $9.5 million in the second round of funding, which will be used to rehabilitate properties in Ivy City, Deanwood and Anacostia.

“Locally, this money will be very helpful,” said Monica Warren-Jones, director of relationship management in Enterprise Community Partners’ D.C. office.

An additional $1 billion was put into the financial regulation bill signed into law by President Obama — bringing the total funding for the program to nearly $7 billion.

“We’re hoping we’ll be able to get something out of that,” Nelson said.

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California Foreclosures at 3 Year Low

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:44:05 +0000

By Alejandro Lazo, Los Angeles Times

Story posted 2010.07.21

The number of California homes entering foreclosure dropped to a three-year low in the second quarter as the fallout from the housing crisis continued to abate, according to data released Wednesday.

Banks stepped up their repossession of homes from people already ensnared in the process, reflecting a push by financial institutions to clear troubled loans off their books.

The number of notices of default filed on California properties dropped 43.8% in the second quarter over the same period last year and 13.6% from the prior quarter for a total of 70,051. Default notices are the first stage of the formal foreclosure process.

It was the slowest pace of California homes entering foreclosure since the second quarter of 2007. Default notices peaked statewide in the first quarter of 2009, when 135,431 households received filings, contributing to a steep slide in prices as bank-owned houses sold at steep discounts.

In Southern California, the number of default notices dropped 46.9% in the second quarter from the year-earlier period and 15.23% from the prior quarter.

“Obviously, motivated sellers and accommodating lenders have played a part in bringing the default filings down, especially when it comes to short sales,” DataQuick President John Walsh said. “Public policy has also been a factor. We also need to remember that prices have come up off bottom over the past year. If they continue to rise, fewer homeowners will find themselves underwater, which is a significant factor in letting a home go.”

Banks stepped up their repossession of homes statewide and in the Southland. The number of trustees deeds — the last stage of the foreclosure process — filed on California properties increased 4.4% from the same quarter a year earlier and 11.2% from the prior quarter, for a total of 47,669. In Southern California, the number of deeds filed jumped 4.5% from the same quarter a year earlier and 9.6% from the prior quarter, to 24,367.

alejandro.lazo@latimes.com

Renters Lose Security Deposits, Security & Other Monies in Foreclosures

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 02:40:50 +0000

By Rick Radin
Contra Costa Times

Erin Kennedy-Florez was 10 months into a one-year lease on a home in Richmond’s Marina Bay development when she found a notice on her door saying the home was being foreclosed.

She said she called her landlord, who told her that he was trying to refinance the house and to keep paying him rent.

“I was paying the rent, but he was not paying the mortgage,” Kennedy-Florez said.

Soon after, the house went into foreclosure and Kennedy-Florez immediately heard from a law firm representing Freddie Mac, the federal real estate lending agency that held the note on the home.

“I had to decide whether I still wanted to be living there while they were showing it (to potential buyers),” she said.

Kennedy-Florez’s situation reflects a problem that tenants rights’ groups say has been flying under the radar since the home foreclosure crisis began in 2008.

They say thousands of renters have lost security deposits, paid rent to former landlords who no longer owned the house, and agreed to move on short notice because they didn’t know their rights.

Kennedy-Florez accepted a cash settlement to move three weeks after the foreclosure in November 2009. She received the check the day she moved out but struggled to come up with the security deposit for a new rental in El Cerrito.

The landlord still owed her a $3,200 security deposit and has been paying it back in $100 and $200 installments, she said.

“I jumped at the first place I couldfind,” she said. “I’m hoping this place isn’t shaky, too.”

Kennedy-Florez’s former landlord said the home had been foreclosed but that he had paid back the security deposit in full. He did not want to be named because of privacy concerns.

According to the rights group Tenants Together, 77,145 California rental units went through foreclosure in 2009, affecting 208,795 residents.

Some of the situations probably have been resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, said Gabe Treves, program coordinator with Tenants Together, which is based in San Francisco.

But Treves said his agency has helped 3,000 renters squeezed between landlords who are behind on their mortgage payments and lenders trying to recover their investments.

“The vast majority of the tenants we talk to are having their rights violated,” Treves said. “Banks are being very aggressive in trying to get the tenants out, because they are stuck on the idea that if tenants vacate the home that they can sell it.”

Wells Fargo Bank is committed to following all rules that protect tenants who are living in foreclosures, spokesman Jason Menke said.

At the same time, Wells Fargo is in the business of lending money for home purchases, not in managing rentals, he said.

“Generally, it’s our object to get a new owner into the house as quickly as possible,” Menke said. “It’s in our best interest and that of the community to return properties to the market.”

State Attorney General Jerry Brown launched an investigation into the issue last month, partly in response to the Tenants Together report.

Brown sent a letter in June to California banks, lenders, investors and law firms asking them to explain their procedures for dealing with tenants in foreclosed properties in an effort to find out whether laws are being broken.

Tenants are protected by a 2009 federal law that allows them to stay in their units for 90 days after a foreclosure notice is posted, but they have other rights as well:

Renters can insist on staying in their units until the end of their leases, except when the new owner of a single-family home wants to move in.

They can require banks and their agents to put all communication in writing.

They are not required to take cash incentives to move out before the law requires.

Harassment, such as changing locks without a court order, entering the home without permission or shutting off utilities, is illegal.

In addition, 16 cities in California, including Oakland, Richmond, Berkeley and Hayward, have just-cause eviction ordinances that rule out foreclosure as grounds for an eviction. Tenants have the right to continue renting the home indefinitely absent any other grounds for eviction unless the new owner wants to move in.

Wells Fargo sends tenants a letter outlining their legal options if it forecloses on the house where they live, Menke said. The bank often offers cash incentives for tenants to move out before the three-month period has passed.

The bank also honors lease agreements as long as the tenant has a copy of the lease. However, if the bank sells the house, tenants have 90 days from the sale to move, said Wells Fargo spokeswoman Mary Berg.

“If the new owner wants to move in, then the tenant is no longer protected unless the new buyer decides to keep the renters there,” Berg said.

Lynne Codde and her daughter Shelby were renting an Antioch home that was sold at auction. The new owner, a property management company, offered them $500 to move out immediately, she said.

“We just kind of laughed at them and went online and found out what our rights were,” Codde said.

She said representatives of the company started showing up twice a week to ask them about their plans to move. One day a woman showed up who claimed that she had rented the house from the new owners.

“Three or four weeks in, they called and asked us how much it would take to get us out,” she said.

The property company eventually agreed to pay them $4,000, which they used to put down a security deposit and first month’s rent on a house in Fremont, she said.

Candyce Fagerhaugh said she lived in a Crockett storefront for 15 years until Bank of America foreclosed on her landlord in November.

She said she and a fellow tenant tried to buy the home before learning how much repairs to it would cost.

The bank allowed Fagerhaugh to stay rent-free while it tried to sell the building. Now Bank of America has given her $2,500 to move out by Aug. 12.

She has bought a house in Vallejo and is moving to her new home.

Banks Take Back 45,000 California Homes in 2nd Quarter 2010

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:37:39 +0000

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The foreclosure plague seems to have reached its peak and started to fade, but the recovery is still fragile.

The number of foreclosure filings of all types — including notices of delinquency, auction notices and repossessions — fell during the first six months of 2010, according to RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties.

There were 1,654,634 properties with foreclosure filings, a 5% decline compared with the previous six months. That equates to 1 out of every 78 homes being at risk.

Unfortunately, the pace of bank repossessions quickened, with nearly 270,000 homes lost to foreclosure during April, May and June, a 5% increase over the three winter months.

James Saccacio, CEO of RealtyTrac, called the report a “tale of two trends.”

He pointed out that the filings data showed improvement because fewer properties were entering the foreclosure process. Part of that is because lenders are now more committed to modifying defaulting mortgages or allowing homeowners to sell their homes for less than they owe.

At the same time, lenders have cleared many properties out of the foreclosure pipeline, finalizing repossession proceedings rather than allowing homes to sit in limbo.

However, there is still much inventory to move through the system and experts aren’t sure how bad it will be.

“While the foreclosure problem is being managed on the surface,” Saccacio said, “a massive number of distressed properties and underwater loans continue to sit just below the surface, threatening the fragile stability of the housing market.”

Hardest hit states

As they have for many months now, the “sand states” led the nation in foreclosures during the first half of the year. One in 17 Nevada households, or 64,429, received a filing. That is the highest rate of any state.

The number of California homes with filings came to more than 340,000, the highest total of any state.

Florida had more than 277,000 filings, or 1 for every 32 households; Arizona had more than 91,000, 1 in 30 homes.

Lenders repossessed 45,000 Calif. homes during the three months ended June 30, more than in any other state. Nevada, with a much smaller population, had nearly 11,000 repossessions, about twice the rate of the Golden State.