San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

E this is a good question. I will email Jim and ask him. If he doesn't know I will check with a title officer.

This particular property looks to have delayed the public sale until 7/23, with Jim's public records service picking it the reverting to First Federal on 7/30. The 4/3 date is just the date published on the Notice of Trustee Sale, which is legally the earliest it could happen.

It is not uncommon at all for a trustee sale to delay many times. Lenders try to meet the timeline minimums on filings for legal reasons, but very rarely get properties through the process that quickly.

Sometimes it's a week at a time, sometimes a month or more, as lenders try to work out all the needed assignments and legal documentation, deal with bankruptcies, and, in the current climate, "hope" that somehow the home will sell or the borrower will cure.

Okay, bad example.

756 Agua Vista, 91914
Sale date: 5/2/08 (confirmed by ForeclosureRadar)
REO date: ???

Little more interesting. Sale date was 5/2 (which was the original date on the NTS), reverted back to US Bank as issuer. Resold as REO on 7/29, with that recording on 8/13.

This is an example where the filings were timely (~90 days after NOD went NTS) and the public sale occurred w/o delay. What we don't have a good idea of is if there was any delay in filing the NOD - that's harder to determine. Based on the default amount of 25k and a loan amount of 825 @6.99% (this is all per records), I'd say the pmt was around $5400-$5500 a month, making them 4 months behind. Add in some late fees, etc. and you get around 25k. So my thinking was the bank waited an extra month to file the NOD.

I don't have an exact number, but this sort of does not occur often, maybe 10-20% of auctions are this smooth, nor does getting to an REO sale in 2 months happen to much. This was a godsend for this lender in this case, even given the several hundred thousand dollar loss.

Thanks for that answer Todd. Confirmed as well that the recorded trustee sale is not rerecorded when a trustee sale is delayed. The only obligation for recording is when the initial NOT is made.

You are absolutely right. I looked closer - REO date is usually within a month from the real trustee sale date shown by ForeclosureRadar.

Todd, can you check what's the story with 2886 Morning Creek, 91914? FR shows it as a REO as of 6/20. I don't see a corresponding entry on bubbleinfo.com. I was in the area last weekend and the house looked lived in (no lockbox, green lawn, car parked in front).

I would disagree with the assertion that only a small minority of defaults go on schedule. I don't have actual numbers for this but I have a lot of anecdotal experience combing default records. Prepping a foreclosure tour (yes that's me with the bus) is more work than it looks like.

That aside, I do think it worth mentioning that I am seeing more and more events in the foreclosure process get delayed. Sometimes they are delayed by years.

I do not know to what extent this is due to just the overwhelmingly huge number of defaults or as part of some attempt to mitigate the growing inventory.

On the topic of inventory, I had an interesting conversation with an agent I am acquainted with today. His firm handles scads of property management. He said that they are in discussions with major banks to put large portions of their repo portfolio into the rental pool.

If this is true, this means that we may see the overall inventory fall relative to the total repo inventory. In terms of sheer numbers it may continue to rise but the relationship of repo to listings may drop.

E,

fyi Monring Creek does have a title transfer recorded to EMC as of 6/26/08. Also recall that Chula Vista does have an ordinance regarding upkeep of bank-owned homes that was passed last year for daily fines of unkept homes.

Also you may want to use fidelityasap.com to check on reo and trustee sale information. It only goes back 1 month from the present date but it is actually a pretty useful site.

RE: 2886 Morning Creek, 91914

This one went back to EMC (Bear) on 6/20 (recorded 6/26). Was originally scheduled to go to auction on 3/27. 3 month delay. Still owned by EMC.

Likely cause on this delay was procedural - there was an assignment of the foreclosing mortgage on 5/14 from Norwest to EMC. It's nearly impossible to unravel the securitization of this from just recorded docs, but it looks like it was originally a Norwest originated loan sold to Bear/EMC.

Most importantly, this was discounted about 220k from the outstanding balance at auction and still did not sell to a third party.

Hope that helps.

I believe the REO date is the day the actual trustee deed document is recorded at the county recorder's office.

Once the trustee sale takes place on the steps of the court house, it takes a few days, and sometimes a couple of weeks or more, for the actual document to make it to the recorder's office.

I guess it's standard practice, but if it were me and I just plunked down a few hundred thousand cash, I'd like my document recorded promptly.