Lenders 'doing everything possible to delay foreclosure'

ForeclosureRadar, the online seller of mortgage default data, has more evidence of a foreclosure backlog in its monthly data, released today:

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.

Of last month's postponed foreclosures, 40% were delayed at the request of the lender; an additional 33% were postponed by agreement between the lender and borrower.

ForeclosureRadar CEO Sean O'Toole's take on this: “The data actually shows that lenders are doing everything possible to delay foreclosure. The reality is that we have very few homeowners being foreclosed on when viewed as a percentage of those scheduled to be foreclosed on, in default, delinquent, or upside down in their mortgage."

Notices of default -- the first stage in foreclosure, which occurs when a borrower has missed several payments -- were down 4% in May from April and down 3% from the same month a year ago, to 40,870 filings statewide.

Foreclosures taken to auction were down 30% in May from a year ago, to 17,871. Of those homes, 84% had opening bids set below the outstanding loan amount. The average opening bid for these properties was 59% of the loan amount. For instance, if a house with a $100,000 mortgage went to auction, the average opening bid would have been $59,000.

Of homes going to auction in May, 88% were taken back by the lender. When a home is not sold to a third-party bidder at auction, the lender takes it back, typically to sell on the open market or through private auctions.

The top 10 counties in foreclosures, per capita: Merced, Stanislaus, Yuba, Riverside, San Joaquin, Solano, Kern, Madera, San Bernardino, Sacramento. San Diego ranked 27th, Ventura 38th, Los Angeles 44th and Orange 46th.

San Francisco had the fewest foreclosures, per capita.