RealtyTrac Vice President Daren Blomquist gave this presentation outlining where foreclosures have been over the past five years and where they are headed in the next two years as part of his keynote speech at the California Mortgage Association Winter Seminar on Feb. 2 in Universal City, Calif.
I’ve talked to many of these media outlets this week, including CNN, ABC, CBS, PBS and Fox News. Many of them were interested in how foreclosures might impact the Florida primary. Yesterday I talked to CNN radio about the president’s expanded refinancing program for underwater homeowners. I’d like to do a quick poll of the room and find out how many of you think this program is a good idea. Raise your hands if you do. Now how many think it’s a bad idea, raise your hands. And how many are indifferent, raise your hands.
Story about senior economist calling after we issued our third quarter foreclosure data in a rush to get more detailed historical data for a briefing with the president in 15 minutes. I had to tell him we usually charge for that type of data, but in this case my boss OKd giving it away in the interest of national security.
OK, for the next 20 minutes we’re going to take a fairly deep dive into some of RealtyTrac’s historical and current foreclosure data. So brace yourself for a lot of charts and graphs and numbers and percentages. And don’t worry about trying to memorize all these stats. We’ll make this slide deck available to all attendees. I’ll also try to keep this a bit interactive so your eyes don’t glaze over completely as we go through this. First thing I’d like to ask is by show of hands, how many of you think we’re past the worst of the foreclosure problem in California?
OK, let’s pause for a second and do another poll. Again, by show of hands how many of you find financing for a foreclosure property purchase is more difficult than a standard purchase? How many find it about the same as a standard purchase?
Lenders are more seriously considering pre-foreclosure sales, which would include short sales and sales on the courthouse steps. Take this request we received last week from a lender, who shall remain unnamed: “ I am looking for data to help evaluate whether it would pay for LENDER X to lower its minimum foreclosure auction bids. For that purpose I am looking for foreclosure auction data with the following characteristics: Winning auction bid, debt on the property foreclosed, some independent estimate of property value (distressed AVM, average value of properties with similar characteristics, etc.), and whether the lending institution won the bid. About half of our foreclosures are in California, Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, but we also have significant losses in Maryland, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, and a scattering of other states. Would your company have any data like that for sale? Also I am looking for data on the average discounts on REO properties by zip code compared to non-REO properties by property type. Would your company have any data like that for sale? What would it cost?
It’s getting tougher for lenders to sell REOs because of title issues. In Arkansas, many title companies are refusing to issue title insurance on REOs because of a court ruling there that found a major lender was in violation of the state’s foreclosure statute. That may push more lenders to foreclose judicially there, whereas in the past the majority of foreclosures have been non-judicial.
Pre-foreclosure sales are outnumbering REO sales in many of the coastal California counties, while REO sales tend to outnumber pre-foreclosure sales in the inland areas. It could be that stronger demand in the coastal areas is giving the lenders the extra margin they need to justify a short sale.
OK, before I move on, here’s a quick pop quiz. Shout out what you think is the city in California with the highest foreclosure rate in 2011. First one with the correct answer gets a free 30-day trial subscription to RealtyTrac.
So we got through where we’ve been. Now let’s look at where we’re going. Before we dive in, I’ve got another quick poll: raise your hand if you’ve heard of the shadow inventory. Now raise your hand if you know what that shadow inventory is. The following six slides show our view of shadow inventory. And if you’ve been hoping to see some pie charts in this presentation, you’re in luck. OK, here we go.
Note the two big backlogs we have are foreclosed properties (REO) and seriously delinquent properties. REOs are being held off the market for various reasons, in part because lenders are concerned they can’t sell them with clear title. And seriously delinquent loans are being held back from entering the foreclosure process for various reasons, in part because lenders are concerned they don’t have the proper documentation to foreclose.
Quick quiz question before I move to the next slide: Shout out how long you think it takes to foreclose on a property in California. Closest answer gets a free 30-day trial subscription to RealtyTrac.
Lenders are getting pressure from Fannie and Freddie to not allow the foreclosure timelines to extend too far. But politically they are feeling pressure to make sure they don’t foreclose improperly on homeowners.
I talked to an investor in Orange county last week who owns about 25 investment properties, mostly buy and hold. He told me he was having trouble getting contractors to complete jobs because workers knew they didn’t need money for mortgage payments. So they would just not show up to work because they knew they could keep living in their homes without paying the mortgage. In his Orange County market, he said he sees a lot of hidden distress in the form of homeowners not making their mortgage payments but not yet in foreclosure.