Foreclosures down state-wide in California

We've known foreclosures were down in South Lake Tahoe for a few months now, but a report out this week shows that this is the case for all of California as well. According to Foreclosure Radar, Notice of Defaults in California were down by 20.7 percent in September from the month before and down 48.1 percent from September 2011.

CA Homeowner Bill of Rights
There had been some speculation that we'd see an increase in the number of foreclosures because banks would be rushing to clear their home inventory before the CA Homeowner Bill of Rights (http://oag.ca.gov/hbor )took affect in January of 2013. This law is to bring fairness, accountability and transparency to the state's foreclosure and mortgage processes.

So far, the pending law hasn't brought forth more foreclosures and it's resulted in the opposite effect. As well, Foreclosure Starts have declined as well as Foreclosure Sales.

Foreclosure Sales Down
Statewide, sales of foreclosed homes are down 17.9 percent from August and down 30.4 percent from September 2011. In South Lake Tahoe we're seeing huge decreases in the numbers. In September there were 9 sales of foreclosed homes, down 58 percent from August and down 57.1 percent from September of 2011.

South Lake Tahoe Foreclosures
There were 7 South Lake Tahoe foreclosures for sale in the month of September, 2012. That is down 86.5 percent from last year when we saw 52 homes. This number is also down almost 50 percent from August when there were 13. Currently there are 8 foreclosures for sale in South Lake Tahoe.

Home buyers were looking for foreclosures a couple of years ago as that is where the good deals were. Now that isn't the case. There aren't many homes to chose from.

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