Siskiyou has foreclosure woes, too

though my situation was a little different, here is what is happening in my county.


By Jeff Knebel Mt. Shasta Area Newspapers Wed Jun 18, 2008, 02:06 PM PDT Siskiyou County, Calif. -

County homeowners are no strangers to the worst housing crisis ever recorded, as the number of mortgage default notices (NODs) filed in California is at the highest level on record.
Siskiyou County now has the fourth fastest rising default percentage in the state.
Siskiyou County has seen a 126 percent increase in the first quarter of 2008 (Jan. 1 - March 31) from the fourth quarter of 2007 (Oct. 1 - Dec. 31), according to RealtyStore.com.
Counties with the highest increase from Q4 2007 to Q1 2008 are Glenn, Trinity and Mono with 138, 227 and 429 percent, respectively.
RealtyStore lists Northern California with a 20 percent increase from the same time span, and the entire state with a 38 percent increase.
The number of statewide homeowners looking down the foreclosure barrel blasted last quarter to its highest level in more than 15 years, as the market continued to work its way through declining home values and a pool of at-risk mortgages that were originated in 2005 and 2006, according to DataQuick.com.
Last quarter’s number of defaults was the highest in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1992.
Lending institutions sent Siskiyou County homeowners 106 NODs during the January-to-March period. That was up from 47 the previous quarter, according to county records.
“We’re looking at more and more notices being recorded,” Siskiyou County Recording Supervisor Rusty Neiswanger said Friday. “We have already seen five percent more this month than last month. Hopefully Siskiyou County won’t be hit as hard as some of the counties in California.
“I do know that it’s effecting the housing market; I just know this is not good.”
The number of Siskiyou County NODs from Jan. 1 until June 10, the most current data available at the time of research, was 226, only 26 less than all of last year.
The number of NODs filed during the same dates was 144 in 2007 and 134 in 2006.
In Jan. 2008 alone, 68 new homeowners were faced with foreclosure, up from 15 in 2007. In June, until the 10th, 13 homeowners received notices, compared with two last year.
“The main factor behind this foreclosure surge remains the decline in home values,” said DataQuick president Marshall Prentice. “Additionally, a lot of the ‘loans-gone-wild’ activity happened in late 2005 and 2006 and that’s working its way through the system. The big ‘if’ right now is whether or not the economy is in recession. If it is, the foreclosure problem could spread beyond the current categories of dicey mortgages, and into mainstream home loans.”
Most of the loans that went into default last quarter were originated between August 2005 and October 2006. The median age was 23 months, up from 16 months a year earlier.
Of the homeowners in default, an estimated 32 percent emerge from the foreclosure  process by bringing their payments current, refinancing, or selling the home and paying off what they owe. A year ago it was about 52 percent, according to DataQuick.
The increasing number of homes lost to foreclosure is a product of the slow real estate market, as well as the number of homes bought during the height of the market with multiple-loan financing, making “work-outs” difficult.
On primary mortgages, California homeowners were an average of five months behind on their payments when the lender started the default process. The borrowers owed an average of $11,474 on an average $346,750 mortgage.
On home equity loans and lines of credit, homeowners were an average eight months behind on their payments. Borrowers owed an average of $3,512 on an average $60,000 credit line, according to DataQuick.
In an effort to stabilize declining home values in certain neighborhoods, the Bush Administration announced Friday a temporary policy that will extend government-backed mortgage insurance and allow for the immediate sale of vacant foreclosed properties.
For one year, the Federal Housing Administration will insure foreclosed properties marketed and sold by property disposition firms on behalf of lenders. The properties, which must be purchased by owner-occupants, will no longer be subject to the customary 90-day waiting period, according to a press release.
“A glut of foreclosed and abandoned homes harms neighborhoods, frustrates homebuyers and delays a community’s recovery,” said Assistant Secretary of Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery. “The action we take today will allow homebuyers to purchase these homes in much greater numbers and ease the excess supply of unsold homes in neighborhoods across the country.”

More of this story was published in the June 18, 2008 editions of the Weed Press, Mt. Shasta Herald and Dunsmuir News