L.A. foreclosures nearly triple year-ago levels

The chart above, from Property Shark, shows the level of new foreclosures in Los Angeles County in the third quarter is nearly triple the year-ago level.

Other highlights from Property Shark's report:

"New foreclosures in Los Angeles continue their two-year ascending trend in the third quarter of 2008, increasing 9% compared to the previous quarter (14,505) and up by 196% compared to Q3 2007 (5,322)."

"During Q3 2008, Countrywide Home Loans was scheduled to foreclose on the most homes in Los Angeles County, followed by Washington Mutual."

"In Los Angeles, zip codes from Palmdale/Lancaster, as well as the San Fernando Valley District of Sylmar, continue to top the list.The foreclosure rate per household remains high in these areas with one in every 45 homes in foreclosure in 93550, and one in every 46 homes in foreclosure in 93535."

-- Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.

Comments

[MarkW]

Is this a true indicator of the number of forclosures? Or, is this simply the maximum number that can be handled by the lienholders during the quarter?

[jbunniii]

This is great news, because it will help exert a downward pressure on house prices, thereby benefiting consumers. It will also serve as a cautionary warning against house "flipping."

[Rational Renter]

WOW.

[Nelcisco is do'in loan mods]

The foreclosure bleeding needs to stop,so if any of you fellow bloggers that are in Real Estate or in loans who know people that's 2 to 3 months behind on their mortgage and haven't recieved a Notice Of Default (NOD) let me know, I'm doing loan modifications.

Nelson Lopez
800-fund-911
cell 805-540-9030
Amerifundsmarthomes.com

[josh]

Peter, I follow your blog daily via my google rss reader. Are you on Twitter yet? If not, why not? Would love to follow you there.

Thanks,

Josh

[Nick]

This would be great news for house prices and affordability, if the traitors in Washington weren't furiously buying enough votes for the bailout bill which explicitly directs Treasury to maintain bubble housing prices. Now, I'm a firm believer in the stupidity and ineffectualness of government, but even I know that with a blank check and enough disregard for the financial welfare of the country, they will certainly be able to maintain whatever level of unaffordable housing they desire.

For example, Treasury could encourage banks to give toilet paper loans to anyone with a pulse and enough dexterity to scrawl on a paper, regardless of the price, their income, credit history, ability to pay, or obvious intent to defraud, and then buy the toilet paper loans from the banks at face value and let the fraudsters keep the homes. Oh, wait... that IS the brilliant plan.

[latesummer2009]

This is the real story behind the global crisis we now find ourselves in. Numbers only get worse once other toxic loan products reset in 2009.

Westside will get hammered.

http://www.westsideremeltdown.blogspot.com

[Jim]

City officials were warned by employees like me to reign in the unsustainable building activity and to focus on job training in anticipation of rising unemployment and advancing foreclosures. They were also warned that dispersed leap-frog development would leave fiscal holes that would cause homeowners' equity to bleed into maintenance of infrastructure in inefficient urban design. THEY WERE WARNED. They chose to ignore the warnings and continued to coddle their friends in the residential and commercial building industries. No doubt the Antelope Valley would still be the hardest hit, but it didn't have to be this hard.

Not all governments are bad, but many won't listen to their staff who really know what is going on. So, folks who will be equally corrupt and toe the line (or those who don't have any other alternatives) remain employed, while ones who know what they are doing and have the courage to speak up will leave.

They axed the City Manager for a similar reason. He stopped their land subsidies to favored developers. The City had long bought property from the County at a tremendous discount and "sold" it to preselected buyers at far below market value. They sold property at half of the highest bid, which they deny was ever offered, to facilitate the development activities of one Mr. Frank Visco in developing a shopping center that stalled in the community review process because it did not meet the needs of the community. The other bidder was told that the property was in escrow even though it was not so that Mr. Visco would not have to bid higher. This was blatantly unethical and economically stupid.

LaSala stopped this practice. They had to pay him a million dollars in severance to get him out of their way so they could continue to enrich their friends. These "developers" wouldn't survive a single business cycle in the Antelope Valley without the huge subsidies they receive from the City of Lancaster. If City Council eagerly spent a million dollars of taxpayer money to get rid of an excellent manager without cause, how much do you think they were getting on the back end? Don't think for a second that nobody saw this coming. Remember that when you vote. It really does matter. Not least to people like me who want to serve the public well by working hard for ethical representatives.