Sonoma County shows drop in foreclosure activity
Foreclosure activity dropped significantly in Sonoma County at the end of last year, but analysts weren’t sure whether it was due to some improvement in the housing market.
Foreclosure activity dropped significantly in Sonoma County at the end of last year, but analysts weren’t sure whether it was due to some improvement in the housing market.
The Bay Area’s median home price slid 4 percent in October amid what analysts described as lackluster sales activity. The median price for all houses and condos dropped to $350,000 from $365,000 in September, according to real estate information service DataQuick of San Diego. The price was the lowest in eight months and down nearly 9 percent from a year ago.
People who lost their homes through foreclosure may ask for a federal review and may be eligible for compensation for financial injury under a new program announced Tuesday in Washington by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Bay Area home sales rose in August, but some analysts worried that the region’s housing market was still “plagued by uncertainty.”
Sonoma County reported an 87 percent jump in default notices that were sent in August to homeowners who had fallen behind in their mortgage payments, according to ForeclosureRadar
Sonoma County home sales rose last month to their highest level in nearly three years, as more owners who still had equity in their houses agreed to sell. In the last three years, these so-called “equity” sales have become a larger part of the county housing market, even as the number of foreclosures has significantly declined, according to The Press Democrat monthly housing report compiled by Coldwell Banker manager Rick Laws.
Two economist from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco predict that U.S. home builders won’t resume average levels of construction until 2014, and possibly later depending on the inventory of foreclosure properties.
Distressed sales made up 86 percent of all houses sold in Lake County in June, according to the California Association of Realtors. That rate was up from 62 percent a year earlier and was the highest rate among among 21 select counties surveyed.
Sonoma County homeowners received 738 default notices between March and June, according to DataQuick, a San Diego-based real estate information service.
June home sales and prices exceeded May’s results in the Bay Area, but still remained below the level set last year. Buyers last month purchased 7,998 new and resale houses and condos last month in the nine-county Bay Area, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. That was up nearly 15 percent [...]