California Foreclosure Activity Mixed

Discovery Bay, CA, September 16, 2008 ForeclosureRadar, the only website that tracks every California foreclosure with daily auction updates; today issued its California Foreclosure Report for August 2008. Analysis show that Notices of Default, which indicate the start of the foreclosure process, increased in California by 4.8 percent; while both Notices of Trustee Sale and actual foreclosure sales dropped. With the exception of February, a traditionally slow month, Notices of Default have stayed in a tight range between 40,000 and 43,000 per month - a peak which may simply reflect the inability of lenders and trustees to process additional files.

High-level findings include:

• Notices of Default increased by 4.8 percent, to a total of 42,790 filings - almost perfectly offsetting the prior month's 4.6 percent decrease.

• Notices of Trustee Sale declined by 7 percent, to 36,292 filings in August.

• Properties taken to sale at auction decreased by 8.6 percent, to 26,309 properties, with a combined loan balance of $11 Billion.

• Of properties taken to sale, 96 percent went back to the lender, with a combined loan value of $10.55 Billion. Third party purchases continued to increase as the discounts offered by lenders also increased.

"It is becoming increasingly apparent that lenders and trustees can either no longer process all of their foreclosures, or are purposefully delaying the foreclosure process," said Sean O'Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar. "While the traditional measures of foreclosure activity are showing signs of slowing, the number of properties scheduled for sale increased by 7 percent from July, and doubled from the beginning of the year."

Traditional measures of foreclosure activity include Notices of Default, which are essentially unchanged from the beginning of the year, and sales at auction, which are up 32 percent from January. Measuring the number of properties currently scheduled for foreclosure requires tracking the actual foreclosure auctions, a service only ForeclosureRadar provides in the state of California. The number of properties currently scheduled for sale has doubled to 70,000 since January. Of these scheduled sales, 61 percent are being postponed at the banks discretion (lenders may postpone the foreclosure auction up to one year in California). Beyond delaying the sale of properties in the foreclosure process, a recent report from the Mortgage Bankers Association also seems to indicate that lenders are delaying foreclosure altogether. They reported that while 6.41 percent of all loans were delinquent, just 2.75 percent were in foreclosure.

Average discounts offered by lenders on the outstanding loan balance at foreclosure auction averaged 36 percent statewide; with one third of all properties taken to auction being offered at discounts of 50 percent or more. Foreclosure Radar estimates that the vast majority of loans taken to auction are first mortgages (at 96 percent of all foreclosures), followed by homeowner association liens at 2 percent, and second and third mortgages at less than 2 percent combined. This is a dramatic shift from the past, when second mortgage foreclosures were far more common, and is clearly due to a lack of equity for these lenders to recover.

Looking at foreclosure sales at the county level, the largest percentage increases occurred in relatively strong markets including Santa Cruz (91 percent), Santa Clara (32 percent), San Francisco (26 percent), Monterey (26 percent) and Napa (11 percent). In comparison, some of the harder hit areas like Stanislaus and San Bernardino saw substantial percentage declines. This, and other factors, seemingly points to a fundamental shift in foreclosure activity; from subprime loans, to the pay option ARMs that are just now beginning to reset and recast to higher payments.

ForeclosureRadar August Report by County
Rank	Change In Rank	County	NDF	NTS	Sales	Population Per Sale	% Change July 2008	% Change August 2007
1	0	Merced	594	588	550	449	-9%	455%
2	1	San Joaquin	1573	1411	1286	518	-5%	248%
3	1	Riverside	5339	4719	3414	572	-11%	267%
4	-2	Stanislaus	1195	1048	899	572	-15%	253%
5	3	Solano	835	687	580	729	0%	230%
6	1	Sacramento	2443	2258	1793	773	-9%	189%
7	-1	San Bernardino	4211	3570	2502	796	-15%	297%
8	4	San Benito	99	84	71	812	3%	265%
9	-4	Yuba	155	124	84	831	-35%	226%
10	6	Monterey	677	542	510	833	26%	384%
11	-1	Contra Costa	1749	1493	1196	861	-6%	248%
12	-3	Madera	261	219	164	880	-11%	398%
13	-2	Kern	1317	1042	871	895	-7%	295%
14	0	Calaveras	43	43	49	933	-6%	975%
15	-2	Sutter	136	107	95	963	-5%	245%
16	-1	Imperial	177	112	142	1,173	-20%	261%
17	1	Placer	401	352	240	1,319	-9%	186%
18	1	Fresno	974	810	622	1,446	-10%	322%
19	3	Sonoma	476	402	324	1,481	-5%	474%
20	5	Amador	33	26	25	1,525	4%	160%
21	-1	Yolo	180	171	117	1,627	-18%	375%
22	5	Alameda	1466	960	907	1,655	0%	268%
23	-2	San Diego	3010	2819	1829	1,677	-16%	227%
24	6	Tehama	9	8	36	1,709	-5%	14%
25	3	El Dorado	190	149	101	1,745	-3%	210%
26	3	Tulare	409	320	234	1,798	0%	327%
27	7	Napa	131	89	73	1,842	11%	424%
28	-4	Ventura	749	674	426	1,919	-19%	319%
29	18	Santa Cruz	194	151	128	2,050	91%	421%
30	12	Santa Clara	1200	1064	853	2,079	32%	475%
31	2	Santa Barbara	267	274	201	2,098	-6%	270%
32	-6	Colusa	1	0	10	2,151	-41%	-100%
33	-1	Nevada	73	50	46	2,175	-12%	257%
34	1	Orange	2539	2181	1236	2,486	-15%	319%
35	2	Los Angeles	8394	6790	4042	2,535	-10%	358%
36	0	Shasta	182	97	71	2,556	-12%	126%
37	4	Mono	17	8	5	2,719	-29%	ND
38	6	San Luis Obispo	154	142	94	2,800	7%	255%
39	-1	Kings	91	70	50	2,955	-21%	678%
40	-23	Sierra	1	0	1	3,501	-75%	ND
41	-10	Glenn	14	14	8	3,581	-53%	250%
42	1	Tuolumne	26	22	16	3,639	-20%	120%
43	5	Butte	73	59	59	3,682	-34%	97%
44	5	San Mateo	300	235	168	4,310	-5%	292%
45	5	Mariposa	12	2	4	4,554	0%	ND
46	-7	Plumas	18	17	4	5,361	-56%	325%
47	-1	Marin	112	76	46	5,507	-32%	322%
48	7	Lassen	1	0	6	5,909	-33%	-100%
49	-4	Lake	1	0	10	6,411	-86%	-100%
50	3	Humboldt	40	53	17	7,796	-15%	960%
51	1	Mendocino	51	24	11	8,222	-21%	300%
52	-29	Siskiyou	24	20	5	9,229	-84%	400%
53	-2	Inyo	1	0	2	9,258	-50%	-100%
54	4	Modoc	2	3	1	9,836	ND	-50%
55	1	San Francisco	163	113	72	11,093	26%	265%
56	-2	Trinity	1	0	1	14,024	-67%	-100%
57	-17	Del Norte	5	0	2	14,598	-83%	-100%

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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 monthly 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.