Sacramento Area Foreclosures At Record Highs, 922% Jump in Sacramento County

From the Sacramento Bee:

Foreclosures in full boom
In ominous sign of more to come, capital region default notices also hit record highs during first quarter of 2007.

There's a new kind of "For Sale" sign appearing in the region's neighborhoods -- offering property repossessed by the banks -- and there will be more, according to the newest round of statistics.

Both notices of default, the first sign that homeowners are having trouble making payments, and foreclosures reached historic highs across much of the Sacramento area during January, February and March, a property research firm reported Monday.
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"You can't party that hard and not have a hangover. You just can't do it," said Keith McLane, who watches the market as principal of Carmichael-based West Coast Home Auctions, which offers sellers a quick sale for a lower price.

Notices of default -- issued after a homeowner misses at least two monthly mortgage payments -- reached their highest levels ever during this year's first quarter in Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, DataQuick reported.
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First-quarter foreclosure numbers also reached highs across much of the region -- in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado, Yolo and Sutter counties -- according to DataQuick, which tracks county property records.

DataQuick said 1,505 homeowners in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties lost their houses to foreclosure during January, February and March. That's up from 865 the previous three months.
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"A lot of these lenders are going to end up with an awful lot of properties," said Pam Canada, executive director of Sacramento-based NeighborWorks HomeOwnership Center, which counsels people with mortgage trouble. "It's been difficult these past weeks particularly. There's more of a tone of desperation from people we're finding now. They have very few alternatives."
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"It makes all the sense in the world," said Andrew LePage, DataQuick analyst. "This is probably the weakest (housing) market in the state, and showing some of the biggest year-over-year declines in home prices and some of the slowest sales."
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Nationally, Yuba County ranked ninth and Sacramento 16th among more than 1,000 counties for the percentage increase of defaults from the first quarter of 2006, according to ForeclosureS.com, a Fair Oaks-based Web site that tracks them for investors. Placer and El Dorado counties ranked 19th and 20th.

Q1 2007 foreclosures per SacBee chart:

• Sacramento County: 1,104, +922% YoY (previous high Q2 1997: 703)
• Placer County: 154, +927% YoY (previous high Q2 1996: 90)

From the Stockton Record:

Foreclosure activity continues to soar, with the number of default notices sent to homeowners in San Joaquin County last quarter hitting the highest level in the past 15 years.
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"We're seeing the tip of the foreclosures," said Jerry Abbott, president and co-owner of Coldwell Banker Grupe. It will take up to two years for foreclosure properties to work through the market, where at the current sales pace, it would take 11 months for all homes currently on the market to sell if no other properties went up for sale, he said.

That will further push down prices, which in San Joaquin County have sagged by more than 5 percent over 12 months, Abbott said. Expect that trend to continue into 2009, he said.

From CBS 13:

From Natomas, to Elk Grove, to Roseville, the signs are everywhere - for sale, bank owned, and foreclosure. Sacramento's chilly real estate market is creating problems in neighborhoods across Northern California.

Homes at Roseville's Morgan Creek Country Club often sell for more than a million dollars. When Matt and Elena Arney bought a new home here, they figured they were buying the luxury lifestyle the builder advertised. "We wanted a country club setting with other families. We have 2 young children," says Elena. The Arney’s were glad to see the community had what seemed to be a strong homeowners association to help protect their investment.
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The Arney’s and their neighbors say they've watched as their community's lawns have begun to turn brown, weeds have taken hold and uncared-for swimming pools have begun to slime over.

The Arney's say the house right next door shows clearly what's happening. "When we had 500 frogs in our backyard, we wanted to find out where they were coming from,” says Matt.

The $850,000 home went into foreclosure. The weeds began to grow, and water and electricity were cut off. Then the pool was drained, it has since refilled with rain water.

A block away, the dying lawn and spreading weeds mark another empty house. Directly down the hill from the Arney’s, is an enormous house neighbors say was stripped of fixtures and flooring by renters, before falling into foreclosure. The Arney’s and some of their neighbors say they understand what's happening. What they say they don't understand is why their homeowners association isn't doing more to clean up the blight.
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[H]omeowners fees usually go to maintain and improve common areas and facilities, not neglected private property.
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Matt says sometimes he breaks down and mows the lawn next door. Merit Company says there's really nobody to assess for maintenance after a foreclosure, banks have no budget for that and apparently no interest - and the home's original owner is no longer a member of the association.

That attorney for Merit Company says he's working on new ground rules for a number of homeowners associations now facing these problems.