West Coast Foreclosures Counterintuitive After Robo-Signing Fixes

Foreclosure activity slowed in April in states along the country's West Coast, but a local firm that tracks every pre-foreclosure notice, foreclosure auction, and foreclosure sale in the area is having trouble making sense of what it says is an unexpected trend.
[IMAGE] According to market analysis released Tuesday by Discovery Bay, California-based ""ForeclosureRadar"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com, foreclosure filings last month were down in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Washington, with Oregon being the sole exception where filings were up.

In fact, filings in California dropped to levels not seen since late 2008, when intervention by the state government to give homeowners in default more time to explore alternatives to foreclosure caused a massive drop in activity.

The company says foreclosure sales saw similar declines throughout its five-state coverage area, except in Washington. Notably, cancellations were up significantly across the board, leaving fewer properties scheduled for trustee sale.

""The drop in filings, and the rise in cancellations, is surprising,"" said Sean O'Toole, CEO and founder of ForeclosureRadar. ""Banks have had time to resolve robo-signing issues, so we should be seeing exactly the opposite results, with lenders starting to catch up from recent delays.""

In ""Arizona"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/arizona-foreclosures, notice of trustee sale filings were down 27.9 percent in April from the prior month, falling to their lowest point since ForeclosureRadar began tracking Arizona activity in August 2009. Trustee sale notices last month were 41.5 percent below April 2010.

Arizona saw a similar dip in foreclosure sales, with a 22.2 percent drop in homes that went back to banks as REOs

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and a 15.4 percent decline in sales to third parties month-over-month. Cancellations rose 18.8 percent from March, which together with the drop in filings led to 10.6 percent fewer properties scheduled for foreclosure sale.

Foreclosure filings in ""California"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/california-foreclosures last month dropped to their lowest level in over two years. Notice of default filings were down 25.8 percent from March, while notices of trustee sale fell 10.9 percent. Filings in both these stages of the process were down around 30 percent from a year earlier.

Foreclosure sales cancelled in the Golden State rose 27 percent from March. Activity on the courthouse steps slowed from the prior month, with 17.2 percent fewer REOs taken back by lenders and a 15.8 percent drop in properties purchased by third party investors. At the same time, the average time-to-foreclose in California continued to climb, increasing 3.3 percent to 312 days.

""Nevada’s"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/nevada-foreclosures default notice filings decreased 17.8 percent in April from the prior month, here too falling to the lowest point since ForeclosureRadar began tracking the state in August 2009. Notice of trustee sale filings were down 23.7 percent.

ForeclosureRadar says activity on Nevada courthouse steps was mixed, with sales back to the bank down by 2.7 percent, but sales to third parties up 6.9 percent from March and 81 percent from April 2010. Cancellations were 14 percent higher month-over-month and up 69.5 percent year-over-year.

""Oregon"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/oregon-foreclosures saw a substantial jump in foreclosure filings, with notices of default up a staggering 236.2 percent from March.
Much of this increase came from ReconTrust, a subsidiary of Bank of America, filing 2,840 new default notices last month compared to the 131 it filed in the first three months of the year, ForeclosureRadar explained.

Oregon homes that went back to the lender as REO last month fell 17.8 percent, however, foreclosure sales to third parties increased 38.7 percent month-over-month.

""Washington"":http://www.foreclosureradar.com/washington-foreclosures saw a 12.1 percent slip in notice of trustee sale filings from March, and a 25.4 percent drop compared to a year earlier.

But ForeclosureRadar reports the courthouse steps were active in Washington state last month with properties sold back to the lender up 38.7 percent, and those that went to third party investors up 40.5 percent from March.