December Foreclosure Statistics
The December foreclosure reports are out. We watch San Diego County and the State of California new filings, outcomes and inventory on a monthly basis. Here’s a quick summary of the December report:
Filings:
On the County level we saw a 24% decrease in new Notice of Default (NOD) filings over the prior month. On the State level there was a 31% decrease in new Notice of Default (NOD) filings over the prior month. Year-over-year, the NOD filings were down almost 19% in San Diego County and 30% in the State of California. It is important to note that these numbers do not provide an accurate reflection of the foreclosure trends. Several lenders halted the filing of new NOD’s for the holidays. We will most likely see a large increase in the number of NOD filing in the month of January as they catch these up.
Year-over-year, both the County and State Notice-of-Trustee Sale (NTS) filings followed the general trend and were down 14% at the county level and 11% at the state level. The prior month NTS filings moved in the opposite direction. When compared to the prior month’s numbers, there was a 14% increase in NTS fillings in San Diego County and an 11% increase in the State. We saw similar numbers in the November report. Again, the month-over-month increase is most likely due to lenders preparing for a busy January (to compensate for their slow December). A trustee sale notice must be filed at least 20 days before an auction date can be set. There is a good chance the lenders increased their NTS filings during the month of December in preparation for the new year.
Outcomes:
The County and State saw very different December trends in the number of cancellations (foreclosure filings that are cancelled before the foreclosures are complete). San Diego County showed a 17% decrease in the number of cancellations over the prior month. The year-over-year was essentially unchanged (down 1%). On the other hand, the State of California saw a 45% increase in cancellations over the prior month and a 61% increase year-over-year. It will be interesting to see how the January cancellation reports come out.
At both the County and State levels, there was an 11%+ decrease in the number of properties that went back to the banks when compared the prior year. Month over month, there was 3% decrease at the County level and a 2% increase at the State level.
The number of properties purchased at auction by 3rd parties (generally investors) has increased significantly since December 2010 (15% County, 45% State) but was essentially unchanged for both the County and State when compared to the prior month.
Inventory:
When compared to the prior month, there was a 10%+ decrease in ‘preforeclosure’ inventory at the County and State level. The ‘scheduled for sale’ and ‘bank owned’ inventories remained fairly flat month-over-month. All three categories were down significantly when compared to December 2010 (estimated 25%, 33%, and 12% respectively).
For a glossary of foreclosure terms, questions on the foreclosure procedure or to get a copy of the full November report, please email a request to: emily@capstonerealtycorp.com
To look for foreclosures in your area, please use our Foreclosure Search page (direct access to Foreclosure Radar records at no cost to you).
