RISMedia
  • News
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • Events
  • Power Broker
  • Newsmakers
  • More
    • Publications
    • Education
No Result
View All Result
  • Agents
  • Brokers
  • Teams
  • Marketing
  • Coaching
  • Technology
  • More
    • Headliners New
    • Luxury
    • Best Practices
    • Consumer
    • National
    • Our Editors
Join Premier
Sign In
RISMedia
  • News
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • Events
  • Power Broker
  • Newsmakers
  • More
    • Publications
    • Education
No Result
View All Result
RISMedia
No Result
View All Result

California Bucks National Foreclosure Trend in 2010

Home Marketing
By Alejandro Lazo
January 13, 2011
Reading Time: 3 mins read

RISMEDIA, January 14, 2011—(MCT)—Fewer Californians grappled with foreclosure last year, bucking a national trend and giving homeowners fresh hope that the state’s housing market could be on the mend. The 14% drop in foreclosure activity contrasted with a 2% rise nationally, according to data tracking business RealtyTrac. Analysts noted that California’s housing market was among the first to falter and may now be among the first to recover. Home prices here hit bottom in April 2009, and have gradually risen since then.

“There are a lot of risks out there, but I think the trend is improvement—not dramatic, but substantial,” said Kenneth Rosen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. But Rosen and other observers caution that the state’s high unemployment rate of 12.4% and weak demand for housing are still a concern.

Another potential trouble spot: A large number of adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset to higher rates in coming months, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president with RealtyTrac. That could lead to another uptick in foreclosures if the borrowers cannot make the higher payments, or decide they are throwing good money after bad.

“You have the three-headed monster of high unemployment, a weak economy and problem loans,” said Sharga, who thinks that California foreclosures in 2011 could surpass last year, and possibly the peak year of 2009.

The crisis certainly isn’t over for Guy Vernikovsky. He is facing foreclosure on his home in Torrance after trying multiple times to modify his loans, asking for lower interest rates from his bank, he said.

Vernikovsky said he lost his job installing energy-efficient light fixtures in 2008 but tried his best to keep up on his two mortgages, even burying himself deeply in credit card debt. He said he moved home with his parents in Northern California, found a new job and would now be able to make his mortgage payments if he could get reduced interest rates on his two loans. “I applied two or three different times and they would not modify my loans,” Vernikovsky said. “I wasn’t looking to turn a fast buck on a real estate market that was hot at the time. I was really looking to own that home for the next 20 to 30 years.”

More than half a million California homes were involved in some stage of foreclosure last year, including notices of default as well as bank repossessions, according to numbers to be released by RealtyTrac. Among those filings, 173,175 represented homes retaken by lenders, a 13% drop from a year ago.

Nationwide, a record 2.9 million homes were in foreclosure, up 2% from 2009.

Sharga said the national numbers would have been much higher were it not for several major banks’ slowing foreclosures dramatically late last year amid scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators and law enforcement officials over their foreclosure practices, including allegations that paperwork was not properly processed. “There were delays over the last two months, or 21/2 months, and that just skewed the numbers wildly,” he said.

Sharga estimated that an additional quarter-million filings in the U.S. probably would have been logged if it were not for the delays brought about by the foreclosure fracas.

Several major banks, including Bank of America, Ally Financial Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., suspended foreclosures late last year in states where a court order is required to take back a home. Bank of America went as far as to declare a national freeze as it reviewed its process, though it lifted that policy in November. How quickly banks will return to foreclosing in the New Year remains the wild card in the equation.

About 4% of all homes in California were at some stage of foreclosure last year, RealtyTrac said. That acts as a drag on the housing market overall, as the availability of low-priced bank repossessions lowers the value of competing properties.

Christopher Thornberg, principal of Beacon Economics, said that high rates of default among borrowers in California are likely to push up foreclosures, but so far the state’s fairly efficient foreclosure system and active housing market have been able to absorb these properties. “They get snapped up pretty quickly,” Thornberg said. “We are not ending up with swaths of empty homes the way that was being predicted.”

(c) 2011, Los Angeles Times.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

ShareTweetShare

Related Posts

Growth Through Acquisitions: Strategies to Scale Smarter, Faster
Best Practices

Growth Through Acquisitions: Strategies to Scale Smarter, Faster

October 22, 2025
Applications
Industry News

Mortgage Applications Drop 0.3%; Signs of Growth as Winter Approaches

October 22, 2025
Picture-Perfect First Impressions: Why Every Pixel Counts in Listing Media
Industry News

Picture-Perfect First Impressions: Why Every Pixel Counts in Listing Media

October 22, 2025
Revive Launches AI Platform to Generate Leads and Engage Clients
Industry News

Revive Launches AI Platform to Generate Leads and Engage Clients

October 22, 2025
HomeSmart Partners With Lower Mortgage in National Marketing Agreement
Industry News

HomeSmart Partners With Lower Mortgage in National Marketing Agreement

October 22, 2025
CoStar
Agents

CRMLS Licensing Vendor Files Lawsuit Against Homes.com and CoStar for Breach of Contract

October 21, 2025
Tip of the Day

Which Homeowners—and Homebuyers—Will Benefit From the New SALT Cap?

The Big Beautiful Bill raised the state and local tax deduction from $10,000 to an incremental scale with a $40,000 maximum. Learn more.

Business Tip of the Day provided by

Recent Posts

  • Growth Through Acquisitions: Strategies to Scale Smarter, Faster
  • Mortgage Applications Drop 0.3%; Signs of Growth as Winter Approaches
  • Picture-Perfect First Impressions: Why Every Pixel Counts in Listing Media

Categories

  • Spotlights
  • Best Practices
  • Advice
  • Marketing
  • Technology
  • Social Media

The Most Important Real Estate News & Events

Click below to receive the latest real estate news and events directly to your inbox.

Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our TOS and Privacy Policy.

About Blog Our Products Our Team Contact Advertise/Sponsor Media Kit Email Whitelist Terms & Policies ACE Marketing Technologies LLC

© 2025 RISMedia. All Rights Reserved. Design by Real Estate Webmasters.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Premier
  • Reports
  • News
    • Agents
    • Brokers
    • Teams
    • Consumer
    • Marketing
    • Coaching
    • Technology
    • Headliners New
    • Luxury
    • Best Practices
    • National
    • Our Editors
  • Publications
    • Real Estate Magazine
    • Past Issues
    • Custom Covers
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Podcasts
    • Event Coverage
  • Education
    • Get Licensed
    • REALTOR® Courses
    • Continuing Education
    • Luxury Designation
    • Real Estate Tools
  • Newsmakers
    • 2025 Newsmakers
    • 2024 Newsmakers
    • 2023 Newsmakers
    • 2022 Newsmakers
    • 2021 Newsmakers
    • 2020 Newsmakers
    • 2019 Newsmakers
  • Power Broker
    • 2025 Power Broker
    • 2024 Power Broker
    • 2023 Power Broker
    • 2022 Power Broker
    • 2021 Power Broker
    • 2020 Power Broker
    • 2019 Power Broker
  • Join Premier
  • Sign In

© 2025 RISMedia. All Rights Reserved. Design by Real Estate Webmasters.

X