With foreclosure activity somewhat erratic in recent months along the country's West Coast, the one development that has become clearly apparent is that foreclosure timelines continue to stretch.
[IMAGE]""ForeclosureRadar"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com has released its monthly report on foreclosure activity in March for its coverage area, which includes Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. The California-based company tracks every foreclosure and provides daily auction updates for these states.
Its latest report shows that foreclosure sales rose dramatically over most of the West Coast, although the company notes that in some cases, the steep increases can be attributed to the fact that March had more days than February.
For example, in California foreclosure sales in March increased 35.1 percent on a month-over-month basis, but rose just 10.5 percent on a daily average basis. Nevada foreclosure sales, however, bounced back strongly after falling in February, rising 109.5 percent even on a daily average basis.
Foreclosure starts, when viewed on a daily average basis, declined across ForeclosureRadar's coverage area in March, though the overall number of filings increased in California, Nevada, and Washington due to the longer month.
Time-to-foreclose remains the one true constant in that it continues to increase across the board, most notably in
[COLUMN_BREAK]Nevada, where sales have been impacted by a local court ruling.
""Between government intervention, internal issues within the banks, and even simple deviations like the number of days in the month, it is easy to come to the wrong conclusions about foreclosure activity,"" said Sean O'Toole, CEO and founder of ForeclosureRadar.
""The one thing that remains clear is that while the process has slowed, there remains no consensus on a viable solution other than foreclosure to eliminate the excess mortgage debt that has left millions underwater and continues to hinder the broader economy,"" O'Toole said.
ForeclosureRadar reports that in ""Arizona"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/arizona-foreclosures, time-to-foreclose last month rose 20.4 percent from February to 189 days. Also of note is that notice of trustee sale filings in the state were essentially flat, remaining at the lowest point since the firm began tracking Arizona filings in August 2009.
The foreclosure timeline in ""California"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/california-foreclosures increased 4.1 percent to an average of 302 days in March. That represents a jump of 83.4 percent from the state’s timeline a year earlier and sets a new record. ForeclosureRadar also reports that lenders filed 26,615 notices of default in the Golden State last month â€" a high point not seen since last October.
In ""Nevada"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/nevada-foreclosures the average time-to-foreclose rose to 322 days in March, up 16.3 percent from the prior month. The number of homes in the state taken back by banks skyrocketed last month, even when viewed on a daily average basis to account for the shorter previous month. ForeclosureRadar tracked 3,473 new Nevada REOs last month, up 53.4 percent from February’s daily average.
The average time-to-foreclose in ""Oregon"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/oregon-foreclosures is now 188 days, up 2.7 percent from February. There, new REOs were down 12.9 percent, and bucking the trend in neighboring states, Oregon saw a 10.4 percent drop in default notices.
The foreclosure timeline in ""Washington"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/washington-foreclosures state rose to 120 days last month, an increase of 6.2 percent from February. Notice of trustee sales filed in March were up 10 percent, but ForeclosureRadar says they’ve remained relatively flat in the state when taken over the context of the last five months.