Foreclosure are Common in California

In the State of California, home foreclosures are becoming increasingly common. According to figures released in March of 2007, one in every 373 households in California was involved in a foreclosure! Why? In many cases, the households had funded their home purchase through A-Alt or sub-prime lending. The defaults also appear on a number of California mortgage refinance loans.

The real estate market in California is incredibly expensive, and of course the more a property costs, the harder it is to get the financing you need. In the past few years, people who wouldn’t normally be able to qualify for a traditional loan have received sub-prime or A-alt loans. Now, many of these individuals are defaulting on those loans. Some are trying to secure lower rates through refinancing, but for many in California of today's interest rates, this is not a possibility.

The rate of default on mortgages is shocking, and lenders are concerned as they receive increasing numbers of foreclosed properties, many of which have not been maintained adequately. Some of these organizations are in such dire straits that they’ve had to hire many new employees or even create new divisions to handle all of the foreclosures. They need to process the foreclosure paperwork, assess the homes’ condition, and then try to sell them in the marketplace.

The truth is that lenders don’t like to be responsible for foreclosed homes. They are financial institutions and they do not wish to enter the real estate market. Maintaining, renovating, and selling foreclosed properties is a distraction from their core business, and they lose money when they own homes that are vacant. Too many of these foreclosed homes require expensive repairs and renovation before they can be resold. This means that the lender has to contract repair and cleaning services, as well as a real estate agent, in order to rid itself of the property. The lending institutions would be much happier simply collecting monthly mortgage payments.

Another problem is that these foreclosed homes are often located near other foreclosed and abandoned homes, which is a signal to prospective buyers that the neighborhood isn’t all that it could be. Also, the vacant homes tend to attract vagrants, which make the foreclosed properties even more difficult to sell for their market value.

Due to all these problems, companies are now offering home owners ways to refinance their home in order to avoid foreclosures in the first place. For example, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America all have programs that are specifically designed to refinance home owners’ sub-prime loans so that they don’t have to default on their monthly mortgage payments. If these programs are successful, they should go a long way toward decreasing the rate of foreclosures in the State of California.