Housing Report-June 26, 2009
Utilizing Foreclosure Radar, here are the simple numbers for the last 120 days;
In Riverside County, homes that have had a NOD filed against them equal; 17,676- In SB=13,583
In Riv. Co. homes that have had a NOS filed against them equal; 13,245- In SB=10,845
In Riv. Co homes that have been sold via a Trustee Sale equal; 6,636- In SB=5,728
Effective June 15-(From Herman Thordsen)THERE ARE 90 DAY MORATORIUMS ON RECORDING NOTICES OF DEFAULT AND NOTICES OF SALE IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A LOAN MODIFICATION PROGRAM IN PLACE AND T HE DRE OR DOC HAS NOT GRANTED YOU AN EXEMPTION BASED UPON ONE YOU MAY HAVE BUT HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED BUY EITHER THE DRE OR DOC.
The new law makes lenders prove to the state that they have a comprehensive loan-modification program that helps borrowers stay in their homes. Those that can’t prove it to the state’s satisfaction must wait an extra 90 days before foreclosing on borrowers.
State agencies reported on June 19, 2009 that 38 institutions received temporary 30-day immunity while the state reviews their applications.
Approved: Bank of America BAC Home Loans Servicing Carrington Mortgage Services CitiMortgage EMC Mortgage Kondaur Capital Select Portfolio Servicing
Applied and received temporary 30-day approval: American Home Mortgage Servicing Beneficial California Beneficial Financial Capital Financial Services Champion Mortgage Chase Home Financing Christian Community Credit Union Citaldel Servicing Corp. Clifford Douglas Fay Servicing First California Mortgage First Entertainment Credit Union First Federal Bank of California Fresno County Federal Credit Union GMAC Mortgage Green Planet Servicing Homecomings Financial Household Finance HSBC Credit Center HSBC Mortgage HSBC Mortgage Services HSBC Mortgage Services JPMorgan Chase Kinecta Federal Credit Union Litton Loan Servicing New Haven Financial Inc. OneWest Bank PennyMac Loan Services Property Assets Inc. Provident Credit Union Residential Credit Solutions Saxon Mortgage Services Selene Finance U.S. Bank National Association Vericrest Financial Walter Mortgage Wealthbridge Mortgage Wells Fargo Bank. (CC Sections 2924, 2923,5 -2923.55)
Foreclosure Radar reports, Statewide, actual foreclosure sales, (Wherein the sale actually takes place), rose 31.9% following a 35% increase the previous month! NOS rose 42% from April, indicating that foreclosure sales will most likely rise in the coming weeks and months ahead. Despite these numbers, the majority of troubled homes, are voluntarily not being foreclosed on by the lenders.
Notice of Trustee sales are up 24.1% over last year this time. However, actual sales are down 30%. Lenders are holding on to their inventory.
87.9% of foreclosure sales continue to be taken back by the banks, despite opening bids averaging 58.6% of the loan value.
“The reality is that we have very few homeowners being foreclosed on when viewed as a percentage of those scheduled to be foreclosed on, in default, delinquent, or upside down in their mortgage.” Sean O’Toole
By the end of May, Ca had 111,824 scheduled foreclosures. Yet only 15.9% were actually sold vs. 49.2% of scheduled foreclosures being sold this same time last year.
THIS NEXT NUMBER IS SIGNIFICANT.
When sales peaked in July of 2008, 61% higher than today, there were only 64,598 scheduled foreclosures vs. the 111,824 scheduled today. Can anyone say; tax dollars at work?!
Keep in mind, at the time of all of the delays, lenders were under no required moratorium. This was voluntary.
Let’s look at the big picture for a moment. There are roughly 4 million homes that have been foreclosed or are seriously delinquent in the US, about 2 million in foreclosure and about 2 million 90 days or more behind. (Source, Ajay Rajadhyaksha at Barclays) This is a reason why there is seems to be a disconnect between what DC is claiming and what we are experiencing here in Ca. Overall, the economy is showing signs of stability. However, Michigan, California and Florida along with a few other States will continue to have housing difficulties, which will slow down our recovery. Further, this is one of the driving forces that is causing Banks, who have the resources to create Warehouse lending, but not the stomach remain out of this lucrative business. Warehouse funding capacity is down over 80%. Without this source of capital we will continue to have trouble with placing borrowers who have the willingness and ability to repay debt, but don’t quite fit the limited scope of underwriting criteria available today.
I believe this may be a new angle that modification attorneys and other will be taking;
Due Diligence Provider Expands Forensic Mortgage Audit Services
By James Comtois
June 24, 2009
After offering comprehensive forensic mortgage analyses to attorneys nationwide for the past two years, the Consumer Mortgage Audit Center LLC is now officially launching three additional forensic, due diligence services to enhance its fraud prevention abilities.
CMAC’s current forensic mortgage analysis identifies potential deficiencies, discrepancies, errors and statutory violations within the particular mortgage loan transaction. New service offerings - the rescission finder audit, servicing history analysis and securitization audit - are all subsets of the more comprehensive, forensic mortgage analysis.
“As attorneys turn to us to gather evidence to defend homeowners with fraud-laden mortgages, we’re responding directly to their requests for more service options,” said Sylvia Alayon, vice president of operations for CMAC. “Many attorneys are still relying on our comprehensive mortgage audits to build their cases. Depending on the attorney, any of these audit products could mean a significant reduction in attorney work hours, great diligence ROI and faster aid to homeowners in trouble.”
National level:
“Historical patterns show that house prices will fall and defaults and foreclosures will continue to rise until there is an improvement in the job market. If the employment numbers start to increase in mid-2010, as many expect, the turnaround in prices and delinquency rates may not come until the first quarter of 2011.” Source, Brain Collins
What the Mortgage Bankers Association Chief has to say:
Defaults on prime loans are the “hardest to fix” because they mostly reflects the loss of a job or other life event, according to MBA chief economist Jay Brinkmann. “Since the mortgage performance lags improvement in the job market, that would put us to the end of 2010 or possibly the first quarter of 2011 before we see a nationwide improvement in the performance of mortgages,” Mr. Brinkmann said.
When I read what the servicers are writing in articles and in blogs, they are very frustrated that they are being forced to have to keep up with “the program of the week” coming from the administration.
• Servicers are complaining that the Obama administration is restructuring its housing rescue plan so that servicers are required to compare modifications to short sales as well as foreclosures.
They were never trained or set up to make these decisions and while the number of modifications has increased dramatically, so has the number of foreclosures.
In conclusion for today’s report, I must say that we are experiencing the worst housing market since the great depression. I’m not saying it is AS bad. However, we have not seen anything like this since then. In addition, we continue to have great minds attempting to solve the supposed problem of “to big to fail” by offering assistance that comes with strings. In my humble opinion, as long as our government continues to show signs of a willingness to help out lenders who have large portfolios of troubled assets, we most likely will continue to see delays in a “normal” foreclosure market (Defined as, if you cannot or won’t make you payments as agreed upon in the terms of your note, we will foreclose and sell the property to obtain as much as we can).
Meanwhile, we have what has been called a Rock, Paper, Scissors approach to the modification request. If they seem to qualify, servicers must compare, modification, to short sale to foreclosure. Whichever works best for the lender, is the direction they are to take. That is if they can figure out if they have permission to take this action prior to the borrower having a heart attack from the stress.
Chris Sorensen
Chairman
USA HELP, Inc. A California non-profit corporation
Chris Miscellaneous
