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Foreclosures drop dramatically in Northern San Joaquin Valley
last updated: November 12, 2008 04:32:20 PM
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Foreclosures declined dramatically last month throughout the Northern San Joaquin Valley. This is the third straight month banks have backed off repossessing homes with delinquent mortgages.
In Stanislaus County, only 423 houses were taken back by lenders in October, compared with 724 in September, 867 in August and 1,053 in July, according to ForeclosureRadar, which released the statistics Wednesday morning.
The news was even better in San Joaquin County, where only 526 homes were taken back by lenders in October, compared with 993 in September, 1,245 in August and 1,357 in July.
In Merced County, only 279 homes were taken back by lenders in October, compared with 420 in September, 549 in August and 603 in July.
Sean O’Toole, founder of ForeclosureRadar, credited the decline to changes in state law and bank procedures.
California Senate Bill 1137, passed this summer, required lenders prove they had given homeowners advance notice before starting the foreclosure process. It also requires homeowners be told free financial counseling is available to help them avoid foreclosure.
Besides the new law, O’Toole said: "Lenders proactively are choosing to modify loans instead of foreclose. Unfortunately most of these loan modifications are likely to just push the problem out, rather than solve it. Most of the modifications we are seeing are giving owners unrealistically low interest rates for five years, at which point we are likely to see another rash of foreclosures."
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