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June 22nd, 2009, 3:00 am by Jeff Collins
 Click to enlarge Recently foreclosed homes, most of them likely being sold by lenders, are taking up a decreasing portion of Orange County real estate transactions, DataQuick’s latest figures show.
In May, homes that had been foreclosed upon in the previous 12 months made up 34.2% of homes sold, excluding newly built home sales, DataQuick reported. That’s the lowest percentage since August.
Foreclosure’s share of the home resale market peaked in January at 46%.
Lenders repossessed more than 1,400 Orange County homes last August — the highest number of any month on record. The increase in resales of foreclosed homes followed, but began to subside in February.
One reason is likely that foreclosures fell in September and subsequent months amid a state law requiring banks to talk to delinquent borrowers at least 30 days before filing a notice of default, which starts the foreclosure process. The law impacts loans made in the final years of the housing boom.
And some agents specializing in selling bank-owned homes have speculated that lenders are withholding a large number of foreclosures from the resale market, making it likely that many more foreclosed homes will show up later. (For more on foreclosure trends, click HERE or HERE.)
In other news…
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • dataquick • distress • foreclosures | 1 Comment »
April 22nd, 2009, 2:21 pm by Jeff Collins
 Some defunct Orange County lenders accounted for the highest proportion of bad loans generated during one of the most notorius periods for bad-loan originations, DataQuick reported today.
In its latest report on defaults and foreclosures, the real estate data firm noted that the highest percentage of defaults occurred from August through November 2006 — a period DataQuick called “a particularly toxic period” for issuing home loans.
Nine percent of the loans issued during that period ended up in default, DataQuick said. Then, it added:
“The lending institutions with the highest default rates for loans originated in August to November 2006 include ResMAE Mortgage (69.9 percent of loans resulting in a default notice), Master Financial (64.6 percent) and Ownit Mortgage Solutions (63.6 percent).”
All three were Orange County subprime lenders before they bit the dust.
Other lenders’ default rates for loans originated in this period: IndyMac, 18.9 percent; World Savings, 8 percent; Countrywide, 7.7 percent; Washington Mutual, 6.3 percent; Wells Fargo, 3.4 percent; and Citibank and Bank of America, less than 1 percent apiece.
In addition, DataQuick reported:
- Of the 3.7 million home loans made in 2004, less than 1 percent have since resulted in a lender filing a default notice.
- Of the 3.7 million loans originated in 2005, 4.9 percent have triggered a default notice so far.
- Of the 3 million in 2006, 8.5 percent have so far resulted in default.
- Of the 2.1 million loans made in 2007, it’s 4.6 percent – “a percentage that’s likelyto rise significantly during the rest of this year.”
DataQuick said the figures suggest that 2006 was “a period where underwriting criteria were particularly lax.” It quoted company President John Walsh as saying:
“The nastiest batch of California home loans appears to have been made in mid- to late 2006, and the foreclosure process is working its way through those. Back then, different risk factors were getting piled on top of each other. Adjustable-rate mortgages can be good loans. So can low-down-payment loans, interest-only loans, stated-income loans, etc. But if you combine these elements into one loan, it’s toxic.”
The figures were part of a DataQuick news release reporting that both California and Orange County recorded a record number of default notices during the first three months of this year.
Statewide, 135,431 default notices were issued during the January-to-March period; O.C. accounted for 8,427 of those. Both figures were up 19 percent from the year before. For more on O.C. foreclosure and default figures in March, CLICK HERE!
To read the Register’s award-winning analysis of subprime lending, CLICK HERE!
Read more …
Posted in: Bad debt • Bank failures • Bank of America • Citigroup • Countrywide • Defaults & Foreclosures • IndyMac • Loan underwriting • Washington Mutual • dataquick • dataquick • delinquencies • distressed homes • distressed properties • foreclosure • foreclosures • IndyMac • liar loans • notices of default • Orange County • record • REO • subprime | 4 Comments »
April 22nd, 2009, 1:02 pm by Jeff Collins
 Click to enlarge DataQuick reported today that lenders filed a record number of default notices on outstanding Orange County home loans last month, signaling more distressed sales ahead in the local housing market.
Lenders recorded 3,485 notices of default, which usually occurs after a homeowner has missed three or more monthly mortgage payments. That’s the highest number in any month in records dating January 1992 (see chart).
That tops the previous record set in February by 743 defaults, and it’s nearly 41 percent higher than the March 2008 total.
NOD’s are the first step in a formal process leading to the sale of a home through foreclosure.
NOD’s have surged following a moratorium caused by a new state law that required lenders to take additional steps to warn homeowners before recording a default.
The ultimate step of repossessing a home through foreclosure has diminished for the first time in three years, however.
DataQuick reported just 541 foreclosures in March, down 22.5 percent from the year before. That’s the first year-over-year decline in foreclosures since July 2005.
A news release from DataQuick reporting a similar decrease statewide attributed the decline to “a temporary foreclosure moratorium” by lenders.
Also, in the report: “2006: state’s most toxic year for home loans”
Read more …
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • dataquick • dataquick • foreclosures • notices of default | 25 Comments »
March 17th, 2009, 5:11 pm by Jeff Collins
 Click to enlarge Foreclosure resales dipped slightly last month as a percentage of all housing resales in Orange County, though they remain elevated vs. 18 months ago.
DataQuick reported today that 41.5 percent of the pre-owned homes sold in February had been foreclosed upon sometime in the past year. The majority of those are believed to be “REOs,” or repossessed homes being resold by the lenders who seized them.
In January, foreclosures’ share of the resale market peaked at 46 percent in Orange County, up from 6 percent in August 2007.
Regionwide, foreclosures accounted for 56.4 percent of Southern California resales activity last month, DataQuick said.
The research firm reports that the large share of foreclosures skews overall price trends, making the price drop seem more dramatic than it is. Homes in the upper half of the market are barely selling, and hence are underrepresented, DataQuick said.
For example, home loan data show that the number of high-end sales financed by so-called “jumbo” loans has decreased, while lower-priced homes sold using Federal Housing Administration loans went up.
Homes sold with loans greater than $417,000 — the former “jumbo” loans — accounted for just 21.8 percent of Orange County home sales, down from almost 60 percent of sales before the credit crunch, according to DataQuick.
At the same time, FHA mortgages made up about 38 percent of all Southern California purchase loans in February, up from 6.4 percent a year ago.
Other housing stories …
… in the lending world …
… from South County …
… and Surf City:
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • REO • Uncategorized • dataquick • dataquick • FHA loans • foreclosures • jumbo loans • share of resales | Post a Comment »
February 9th, 2009, 4:35 pm by Jeff Collins
 Yun in Laguna Hills National Association of Realtors’ chief economist Lawrence Yun told an Orange County crowd today that he failed to foresee the depth of the housing crash because he didn’t realize that the normal “checks and balances” in the mortgage system had gone out the window.
As a result, Yun said at the Orange County Association of Realtors headquarters today, he failed to foresee the colossal price drops that followed.
Five years ago, Yun said, he told people that homes are not like stocks. They’re tangible assets, made from brick and wood, and sudden price drops just won’t happen.
“In hindsight, I was wrong in that assessment, but my assessment was based on a check and balance system,” Yun said. Lenders traditionally held housing bubbles in check by making sure they only gave mortgages to qualified buyers.
But the checks and balances failed. Relying on the rating agencies that gave mortgage-backed securities AAA ratings, everyone from German mutual funds to Florida teachers pensions and the Chinese government flooded investment houses with cash to fund new mortgages, Yun said.
Tons of “unqualified people, people not emotionally ready” to buy a house became borrowers.
“What I found out was there was a credit market bubble that led to a housing market bubble. There was not check and balance in the system,” he said.
When the bubbles burst, home prices fell by as much as 45% in Stockton, he said. And even in the Midwest, which did not have a housing bubble, markets are suffering.
“Who would have thought a tangible asset would fall 45% in one year?” Yun asked.
More housing/mortgage-related news …
Posted in: Credit Crunch • Meltdown • Top posts • chief economist • credit bubble • housing bubble • Lawrence Yun • NAR • OCAR | 27 Comments »
February 5th, 2009, 3:00 am by Jeff Collins
 $1 million-plus listing in Laguna DataQuick reported that 1,718 homes that had previously sold for $1 million or more either faced foreclosure last year or actually was seized by a bank.
By comparison, Orange County recorded 2,862 home sales of $1 million or more in 2008, the market research firm reported.
In its latest report on 2008 million-dollar home sales, DataQuick found that 1,179 Orange County homes that had previously sold for seven figures received a notice of default in 2008, entering the first stage of the foreclosure process.
In addition, 539 O.C. homes that previously sold at $1 million or more were lost to foreclosure last year.
Orange County accounted for a third of the notices of default filed on million-dollar homes statewide, while one in five of California’s million-dollar abodes lost to foreclosure occurred here.
Related news …
In other real estate news …
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • Top posts • dataquick • foreclosure • million-dollar homes • NOD • notice of default | 17 Comments »
January 30th, 2009, 11:00 am by Jeff Collins
Lennar Corp. Chief Investment Officer Emile Haddad told a business breakfast in Irvine Thursday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should buy 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at prices that allow banks to offer consumers a 3% interest rate. He said doing that for six months would help stimulate homebuying and help stabilize the U.S. economy.
Under a plan backed by the home building industry, government-sponsored enterprises would provide 3% mortgages for six months, followed by 4% mortgages. The program also calls for homebuyers to get $20,000 in tax credits.
If you give people 3% home loans, Haddad said, “they buy. … We’ve tested it.”
But another speaker at yesterday’s business outlook breakfast, Andrew Policano, dean of the UC Irvine Paul Merage School of Business, said that was not a good idea. Policano said after the breakfast that 3% loans would be “underpriced,” while 4.5% mortgages — a plan backed by the National Association of Realtors — would be “more reasonable.”
“It’s really pretty much a pitch to subsidize one industry,” Policano said. “Would you take a 3% rate for a 30-year investment?”
But Haddad defended the idea, saying that the government agencies likely would make money on 3% loans because their cost of funds would be lower.
“The government is subsidizing a lot of industries to jump start the economy,” Haddad said. “This will help the consumer.”
In other news…
Posted in: Fannie & Freddie • Meltdown • Mortgage rates • homebuilders • homebuilding • Lennar • mortgages | 39 Comments »
January 20th, 2009, 11:55 am by Jeff Collins
 Click to enlarge Foreclosures were a smaller share of Orange County home sales last month than the month before, MDA DataQuick reported.
But because there were more sales last month than the month before, the actual number of foreclosed homes sold increased.
DataQuick reported that:
- 43 percent of the 2,373 existing homes resold in December had been foreclosed upon in the previous 12 months. That amounts to just over 1,000 foreclosed homes.
- 44.2 percent of the 1,940 existing homes that resold in November, or around 860 homes, had been foreclosed upon in the previous 12 months.
Numbers are up dramatically from a year ago. In December 2007, just 20 percent of the 1,300 resales, or 260 homes, had been foreclosed upon in the previous year, DataQuick reported. Foreclosures made up just 6 percent of resales in August 2007.
Meanwhile, foreclosed homes continued to be increasingly dominate elsewhere in the region, particularly in the Inland Empire, DataQuick reported.
Just under 70 percent of resales in Riverside and San Bernardino counties were foreclosure homes, DataQuick said.
Regionwide, foreclosures accounted for 55.7 percent of December’s resales activity, up from 54.7 percent in November, and up from 24.3 percent in December 2007.
More from DataQuick …
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • dataquick • dataquick • foreclosures | 9 Comments »
December 16th, 2008, 2:09 pm by Jeff Collins
 Click to enlarge Homes repossessed by lenders sometime in the past year make up an increasingly large share of existing home sales in Orange County, climbing to 44 percent of all home resales last month, DataQuick reported today.
That compares to 14 percent of the sales of existing homes in November 2007.
In Southern California, repossessed homes made up 55 percent of resales last month, DataQuick reported (Read more on that HERE). Foreclosures have accounted for about half of all Southland resales during the past three months.
Riverside County had the highest proportion of repo resales: 70 percent. Next in line:
- San Bernardino County at 68 percent,
- San Diego County at 52 percent,
- Ventura County at 48 percent,
- Los Angeles County at 44 percent.
Read more …
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • Meltdown | 5 Comments »
November 20th, 2008, 3:00 am by Jeff Collins
 DataQuick reports that four out of every 10 existing homes sold in Orange County last month were recently foreclosed homes, up from 11 percent the year before.
The proportion of sold homes that had been foreclosed upon in the previous year has risen steadily each month, helping to boost overall home sales while pulling down median home prices (Click on chart to enlarge).
Still, Orange County had Southern California’s lowest proportion of foreclosed homes selling in October. In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, two out of every three existing home sales was a foreclosed home.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Orange County: 39.2 percent
- Los Angeles: 40.3 percent
- Ventura: 47 percent
- San Diego: 48.6 percent
- San Bernardino: 65.2 percent
- Riverside: 67.7 percent
- SoCal: 51 percent
Just 16 percent of all Southern California homes sold in October 2007 were foreclosures.
More from DataQuick …
And in other mortgage news…
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures • Meltdown | 7 Comments »
October 21st, 2008, 3:15 pm by Jeff Collins
 Check out our Huntington Beach real estate blog
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Zillow.com reports that interest rates quoted to loan shoppers on its Mortgage Marketplace Web site jumped almost a half percentage point last week following wild gyrations on the stock market the week before. In some states, 30-year fixed rates edged up by as much as 59 basis points.
Rates for 30-year fixed mortgages increased to 6.36 percent, up from 5.95 percent the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor. Mortgage rates for 15-year fixed rose to 6 percent, up from 5.65 percent and 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages increased to 5.69 percent from 5.68 percent.
At the state level, Michigan and North Carolina both experienced 59-basis point increases in 30-year fixed loan rates, the biggest increase among the 20 states with the highest quote volume on Zillow. Rates were lowest in Colorado (6.24 percent) and Oregon (6.25 percent), while Connecticut (6.49 percent) and Maryland (6.45 percent1) had the highest rates.
Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is a web site that allows borrowers to anonymously request an unlimited number of loan quotes from mortgage professionals. Here are rates for the weeks ending on Oct. 19 and Oct. 12 by type and by state (30-year fixed):
| Type/State |
Oct. 19 |
Oct. 12 |
Ch. Basis Pts. |
| 30-Yr fixed |
6.36% |
5.95% |
41 |
| 15-Yr fixed |
6.00% |
5.65% |
35 |
| 5-1 ARM |
5.69% |
5.68% |
1 |
| Arizona |
6.41% |
6.02% |
39 |
| California |
6.37% |
5.97% |
40 |
| Colorado |
6.24% |
5.92% |
32 |
| Connecticut |
6.49% |
5.94% |
55 |
| Florida |
6.32% |
5.92% |
40 |
| Georgia |
6.29% |
5.83% |
46 |
| Illinois |
6.43% |
5.96% |
47 |
| Maryland |
6.45% |
6.05% |
40 |
| Massachusetts |
6.43% |
6.05% |
38 |
| Michigan |
6.44% |
5.85% |
59 |
| Missouri |
6.39% |
5.93% |
46 |
| New Jersey |
6.31% |
5.93% |
38 |
| New York |
6.40% |
6.01% |
39 |
| North Carolina |
6.38% |
5.79% |
59 |
| Ohio |
6.35% |
5.95% |
40 |
| Oregon |
6.25% |
5.82% |
43 |
| Pennsylvania |
6.38% |
5.98% |
40 |
| Texas |
6.32% |
5.91% |
41 |
| Virginia |
6.36% |
6.03% |
33 |
| Washington |
6.27% |
5.90% |
37 |
Source: Zillow.com
Read more …
Posted in: Credit Crunch • Meltdown • Mortgage rates • market meltdown • Mortgage rates • stocks • Zillow | Post a Comment »
October 15th, 2008, 9:00 am by Jeff Collins
The California Association of Realtors forecast that interest rates for a conforming 30-year fixed-rate loan will average 6.2 percent in the state through 2009, up slightly from this year’s average rate of 5.9 percent.
The rate for a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage is forecast at 5.3 percent, vs. 5.2 percent this year.
California’s fixed rates have ranged from 5.8 percent to 6.4 percent in the past five years, while rates for ARMs climbed from 3.8 percent in 2003 to 5.6 percent in 2007, CAR reported.
The interest rate predictions were included in the association’s annual housing market forecast, which projected that California home prices will fall 6 percent next year, but sales will increase 12.5 percent.
And in related news…
And coverage of the financial meltdown…
Posted in: Mortgage rates • California Association of Realtors • forecasts • interest rates • mortgages | 10 Comments »
July 31st, 2008, 1:30 pm by Jeff Collins
 Cutbacks and layoffs helped Santa Ana-based First American Corp. post a $42 million profit during the second quarter of 2008, compared to a $66 million loss in the same quarter of 2007, the title insurance and business data firm reported today.
The turnaround occurred mainly in its Title Insurance division, which had pretax losses of $156 million in the second quarter of 2007. During the second quarter this year, title insurance products generated $38 million in pretax earnings, despite a 26 percent drop in revenue and a 17 percent drop in closed title orders.
That decline in business was offset by the company’s decision to lay off 700 employees and close 94 title insurance offices during the second quarter. Dennis J. Gilmore, First American’s chief operating officer said:
“Our Title Insurance segment earnings this quarter reflect our aggressive cost-reduction efforts and the structural improvements that are ongoing throughout the organization. We will continue our efforts to increase the efficiency of our operations by advancing certain key company-wide initiatives, including focused management of employee costs, centralizing administrative functions, reorganizing our operating structure and rationalizing our office footprint.”
First American’s net profits occurred despite revenue declines in specialty insurance, information solutions, and data and analytic services due to fewer mortgage originations, tightening credit and other factors.
First American suffered net losses in the fourth quarter of 2007 as well, but reported a net profit of $29 million during the first quarter this year. The second quarter profit was 43 percent greater than in the first quarter.
The company also reported that it has delayed its plans to split the company in two “given the uncertainty in the real estate and mortgage credit markets.” The company plans to separate its Financial Services Group, which includes title insurance, and its Information Solutions companies that supply real estate and other business data to clients.
Read earlier posts:
Posted in: First American | 2 Comments »
July 16th, 2008, 1:52 pm by Jeff Collins
(Update II: table added)
DataQuick reported today that a torrent of homeowners continued to lose their homes at near-record rates last month.
Lenders foreclosed on 1,056 Orange County residences in June, DataQuick reported. That’s the second-highest monthly total in records dating back to 1992 and the second straight month in which the total topped 1,000 foreclosures. In May, lenders foreclosed on a record 1,131 O.C. homes.
It was also the second straight month in which foreclosures were more than 1.5 times greater than the 1990s peak of 674 foreclosures recorded in October 1996.
Put another way, last month’s foreclosures outpaced the 1990s level even after accounting for the increase in population and housing here. There were 10.6 foreclosures last month for every 10,000 occupied households in Orange County, vs. 7.6 in October 1996.
In addition, lenders filed 2,282 formal notices of default, a precursor to the actual eviction of residents and repossession of their home. June’s total was the sixth-highest number of default notices on record, with the high totaling 2,598 filed in April.
Homeowners receiving default notices can halt the foreclosure process by paying all their missed payments, plus penalties.
But DataQuick numbers show that a greater proportion of default notices are ending in foreclosures. The ratio of defaults to foreclosures filed in June, for example, was one foreclosure for every 2.2 defaults. That compares to one foreclosure for every 3.6 defaults filed in June 2007 and one for every 35 defaults in June 2006.
And here’s a table:
| Year |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
| Month |
Defaults |
Forec. |
Defaults |
Forec. |
Defaults |
Forec. |
| January |
2,352 |
802 |
847 |
153 |
384 |
25 |
| February |
2,254 |
732 |
811 |
164 |
316 |
14 |
| March |
2,476 |
698 |
986 |
204 |
407 |
28 |
| April |
2,598 |
898 |
855 |
234 |
374 |
22 |
| May |
2,468 |
1,131 |
1,021 |
276 |
444 |
37 |
| June |
2,282 |
1,056 |
1,108 |
311 |
462 |
13 |
| July |
|
|
1,167 |
367 |
440 |
44 |
| August |
|
|
1,476 |
469 |
498 |
59 |
| September |
|
|
1,239 |
444 |
588 |
78 |
| October |
|
|
1,448 |
530 |
599 |
104 |
| November |
|
|
933 |
364 |
665 |
102 |
| December |
|
|
1,895 |
644 |
688 |
121 |
| TOTAL |
14,430 |
5,317 |
13,786 |
4,160 |
5,865 |
647 |
More from DataQuick:
More on foreclosures:
Posted in: Defaults & Foreclosures | 3 Comments »
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