How is the national foreclosure crisis being felt on the coast? Several marquee businesses face foreclosure, as well as dozens of homes, a phenomenon mostly unseen locally.
How bad is the problem compared to other areas? To past years? Why did this happen? How can we fix it? What can you do if you are facing foreclosure?
This reporter would like your answers to those questions. I am researching a series of articles on impacts, opportunities and often unseen dimensions of foreclosure with KZYX&Z public radio”s reporter Christina Aanestad. We will get through more data this way and develop better storylines; we each will do all our own reporting based on shared raw information.
The idea from the local real estate community is that we could really help people understand the issue. As a Realtor myself, I do have a different perspective to offer. But of course, there are hard questions to be asked of buyers, loan agents, government regulators and real estate agents. Many stories oversimplify the problem and/or create villains and victims.
Hope may be on the horizon for a sinking market, after a federal bailout this week of two quasi-government agencies that are key to the mortgage market.
The problem with getting the real story on the foreclosure crisis is that many of those involved simply don”t want to talk, or they want to spin the facts.
Notice of default
A look at two of the foreclosure indicators for Mendocino County shows dramatic increases in 2008 over 2007 and even bigger increases over 2006.
A notice of default legally puts the homeowner on notice and tells how far behind they are on their loan and gives them a time period to correct the deficiency- or foreclosure.
There were 304 notices of default filed in the Mendocino County recorder”s office between Jan. 1 and Sept. 2, 2008.
The numbers were increasing in August, which is normally a hot real estate sales month. The annual figure was up 59 percent over the same period of 2007 and 87 percent over the same period in 2006.
Notices of default are the first step in the foreclosure process and are considered more of a representative of what will be happening this winter than now. Notices of default don”t always mean a foreclosure will result. On the other hand, there are some properties in foreclosure that get none of these notices. None of the foreclosure indicators are complete records.
Notice of trustees sale
A much more serious — and more imminent — step in the county recorder”s office foreclosure process is the notice of trustees sale. The actual sale on the courthouse steps is scheduled with this filing. While the homeowner can still negotiate a solution with the lender, the property will ultimately be sold if that doesn”t happen.
There were 161 notices of trustees sales filed in 2008 through Aug. 20, a number historically much more dramatic than the number of notices of default. Notices of Trustees sales are up 75 percent over the same period in 2007 (92) and 209 percent over 2006 (52).
For Fort Bragg, the RealtyTrac service shows 21 properties in pre-foreclosure, nine bank-owned properties and four up for auction.
Statewide, according to dqnews.com, there were 121,341 notices of default filed in the second quarter of 2008, more than double the 53,943 from the same quarter in 2007, which had been considered a bad year.
Mendocino County has several distinct real estate markets in it, so countywide figures aren”t terribly relevant to Fort Bragg, South Coast, Mendocino area or the Anderson Valley markets. Even more confusing, “Mendocino County” statistics described in news accounts often include Lake County, whose real estate market may be similar to Ukiah and Willits, but is not related to the coast.
Please email frankhartzell@gmail.com, if you would like to be part of the story. Christina Aanestad can be reached at Christina@kzyx.org.
