Not so fast California! Lenders are trying to buy more time by delaying foreclosures. But the inevitable will happen and the backlog will eventually hit the market, check out these handy stats from the L.A. Land blog by the L.A. Times; “In May, a record 111,824 California homes were scheduled for foreclosure sales, but just 16% were auctioned. By comparison, last May, sales were held for 49% of homes slated for foreclosure.”
And if you think it’s just our status-seeking neighbors to the north in L.A. that are due for a wake-up call, you should know that in a ranking of foreclosures per capita, per county in California, Orange County was ranked 46th, just two spots below LA county. This truth has hit America’s Safest City hard, the OC Register reports “about 1 in 4 homes currently listed for sale in Irvine is a foreclosure or short sale.” So, once lenders finally release these pent up foreclosures to the market it’s going to create more short sales and the depletion of that sweet, sweet HUD tax credit we’ve all been hearing about will drive market prices even lower. It’s an investor’s paradise!
Minda Reves is a freelance blogger for SHORTsense.com