What's New at Moore Appraisals

June’s sales were the highest for that month since 2006, when 31,602 homes sold, but were 17.7 percent below the average June sales total since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin. June sales peaked at 40,156 in 2005 and hit a low last year.

Foreclosures remained a major force in June, but their impact on the resale market eased for the third consecutive month.

Foreclosure resales – homes sold in June that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months – represented 45.3 percent of Southland resales last month, down from 49.7 percent in May and down from a peak 56.7 percent in February this year. Last month’s level was the lowest since foreclosure resales were 43.7 percent of resales in July 2008.

As the influence of deeply discounted foreclosures in lower-cost areas has waned in recent months, sales in higher-cost housing markets have increased and accounted for a greater share of total transactions.

Foreclosure activity in Inland Southern California declined from April to May, with fewer notices of default and bank repossessions than a year ago.

But real estate experts say the numbers reflect special circumstances apart from market trends and do not offer homeowners reason to hope their pain is ending.

Daren Blomquist, spokesman for RealtyTrac, which released its monthly foreclosure report late Wednesday, said the current decline in defaults and foreclosures should not "give people a false sense that the problem is solved before it actually is."

RealtyTrac said Riverside County recorded 4,694 notices of default in May, down from 6,019 in April and 5 percent fewer than in May 2008. Homes repossessed dropped from 1,519 in April to 1,296 in May, which was 44 percent fewer than a year earlier.

Chapman University economist Esmael Adibi said the root causes of foreclosure remain: the resetting of mortgages to monthly payments that borrowers can't afford and job losses in a weak economy.

"If you look at these two elements, I don't see how we will see a significant drop in either notices of default or foreclosure until at least the end of this year," Adibi said.

San Bernardino County saw notices of default fall to 3,521 in May from 4,661 in April and 13 percent from May 2008. The number of homes repossessed declined from 1,580 in April to 1,296 in May, 45 percent fewer than a year earlier.

Still, last month all combined foreclosure-related activity -- which includes the notices of default plus notices of trustee sales and bank repossessions -- increased by more than 16 percent in Riverside County and by more than 20 percent in San Bernardino County compared to the previous May.

Last month Riverside County ranked third and San Bernardino seventh among California counties in rate of foreclosure filings, with Riverside County having one filing for every 70 households and San Bernardino County one filing for every 81 households.

Month-to-month foreclosure activity has ebbed, Blomquist said, probably because of state legislation that delayed notices of default and foreclosure moratoriums that lenders adopted in anticipation of a mortgage modification program the Obama administration launched in March.

While foreclosure moratoriums officially expired after the winter holidays, some lenders continue to hold off foreclosures for borrowers who they determined may qualify for help under the new federal loan modification guidelines.

"The introduction of this legislation is a victory for consumers and members of the industry alike," said NAMB President Marc Savitt, CRMS. "We thank Congress for recognizing the need to address the issue of appraiser coercion without causing undue harm to borrowers or diminishing competition in the marketplace."

NAMB has taken an active stance against the HVCC since its introduction in March of 2008. "We urge Congress to pass H.R. 3044 as soon as possible to ensure that more borrowers will not be negatively impacted by this de facto rule," stated Savitt. "In the period of time since its implementation, the HVCC has increased costs to consumers and decreased the quality of appraisals and has provided a level of uncertainty in an ailing housing market. Tens of thousands of consumers have already been robbed of their opportunity to enjoy historically low rates by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's rule."