Valley counties still lead nation in foreclosures despite glimmer of hope

First the good news: Foreclosure filings declined in Stanislaus, Merced and San Joaquin counties during October, a national foreclosure tracking service announced today.

Now the bad news: Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties had the highest foreclosure rates in the United States last month.

And more bad news: The three counties broke records in October for the number and the value of properties repossessed by lenders, a different foreclosure tracking service revealed.

Foreclosure figures have been brutal this year throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

So RealtyTrac's October statistics showing a decrease in the combined number of foreclosure filings -- including notices of default, notices of trustee sale and properties repossessed by lenders -- was a positive sign.

But those same statistics also showed just how much worse the foreclosure crisis is in this region compared with the rest of the country.

There were foreclosure filings for one of every 82 Merced County households last month, according to RealtyTrac. That was 6.7 times higher than the national rate of one filing for every 555 homes.

San Joaquin County posted the second-highest foreclosure filing rate in October, one for every 105 households. Stanislaus County was third with one filing for every 109 households.

The rest of California looked pretty good by comparison: one filing for every 258 households. Some places don't seem to have many foreclosure problems, such as San Francisco, where there was one filing for every 2,232 households.

In past years, homeowners who were warned about being in default on their mortgage or threatened with a trustee sale usually were able to get out of trouble before losing their homes. They typically sold their houses, refinanced their loans or convinced lenders to change their mortgage terms.

This year, however, record numbers of properties have been lost to foreclosure. Every weekday on the county courthouse steps in Modesto, Merced and Stockton, foreclosure auctions are held, and lenders typically end up owning the properties.

That happened 403 times in Stanislaus County last month, according to ForeclosureRadar, another foreclosure tracking company. Those foreclosed Stanislaus properties had unpaid mortgages worth nearly $139.6 million.

There were 646 properties with $246.3 million in unpaid mort- gages foreclosed on in San Joaquin County, and 179 properties with $57.4 million in unpaid mortgages foreclosed on in Merced County. By comparison, only six properties with $2.1 million in unpaid mortgages were foreclosed on last month in Tuol-umne County.

"Lenders ultimately will rea-lize they are best served to work things out (with borrowers) rather than to go through the foreclosure process," predicted Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac spokesman. He noted that several large lenders recently announced efforts to negotiate with homeowners who are in mortgage trouble.

To comment, click on the link with this story at www.modbee.com. Bee staff writer J.N. Sbranti can be reached at jnsbranti@modbee.com or 578-2196.