Foreclosure Radar, which tracks foreclosure auctions, reports that 8,716 California homes were sold at auction in July, a stunning 24.6% increase from June. Foreclosure Radar only began tracking auction activity last September, so it has no year-over-year numbers for July.
Data dump: Total loan value on those properties was $3.5 billion; 95% of the properties auctioned were returned to the lender; Los Angeles, with 1,348 auctions, led the state, but on a per capita basis is not a foreclosure hot-spot: it ranks 35th among California counties. Ninety percent of the underlying loans were issued in 2005 (39%) or 2006 (51%).
Foreclosure Radar CEO Sean O’Toole: “I was surprised — we saw two months in a row at right around $2.8 billion. I knew we would see a bump in the fall, but I was kind of hoping that we had leveled off for now. To see a 25 percent increase was definitely a surprise to me. And I don’t see a leveling in August.”
O’Toole estimates the minimum lag time between the first missed mortgage payment and the foreclosure auction at roughly 180 days — although it varies widely. That means most of the owners of these properties were in trouble back in January — or earlier.
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