Foreclosure relief not reaching everyone
Real Estate news from the we buy houses team
Although Contra Costa County’s foreclosure rate slowed in June, some areas of the county hardest hit by the crisis continue to see the rate hold steady or increase.
Countywide, foreclosures dropped 4 percent in June from the previous month (though it was still up 50 percent over June 2007), according to RealtyTrac. Neighboring Alameda County saw a 25 percent drop in June, and Bay Area-wide, the rate fell 9 percent from the previous month.
But Brentwood and Antioch, which were among the cities that bore the brunt of the county’s housing crisis in the past year, aren’t seeing that same kind of relief, according to the online real estate tracker DataQuick.
Of the 471 homes listed for sale in June in Brentwood, 130 were foreclosures — up nearly 6 percent from the 123 foreclosures listed in May. But because the number of houses listed for sale also rose, the actual percentage of foreclosures on the market stayed nearly the same. The percent of listings there that were distressed — a label that encompasses both foreclosed properties and short sales — was 66.88 percent, up slightly more than 2 percent from May.
A short sale occurs when the bank agrees to sell the house for less than the loan is worth.
In neighboring Antioch, the number of foreclosed homes fell by 1.8 percent, from 500 to 491. Fewer homes were on the market, though, so the percentage of foreclosed homes actually increased by .6 percent. The percentage of Antioch listings that were distressed inched up, from 80.59 percent in May to 81.35 percent in June.
Gina Rozenski, Brentwood’s redevelopment and housing manager, said East County officials still expect to see the foreclosure rate ease and decrease here as it has elsewhere, but that it may take a little longer.
“With Brentwood and Antioch as the epicenter for the fastest growth not only in the county but in Northern California … it would make sense that some of the stabilization that we would see in the rest of the county would probably come to Brentwood a couple months later,” Rozenski said.
The silver lining in the situation, real estate experts say, is that the corresponding decrease in home prices in the area means foreclosed homes aren’t sitting on the market as long as they once were, and many qualified buyers are able to afford a home for the first time.
The median sale price in Brentwood in June was $375,000, and in Antioch, it was $275,000.
“If a property goes on the market that is priced well and in decent condition we are seeing multiple offers,” said Carol Manning, a broker associate with Prudential California Realty in Antioch. “So there is a lot of buyer activity.”
Rozenski said Brentwood’s available housing stock, which at one point last year hit a high of 18 months’ worth, is now down to just 4.5 months.
Investment activity is also starting to pick back up, according to Brentwood city officials, but stricter lending standards are preventing investors from picking up properties they cannot afford.
“The level of honesty in terms of lending right now has increased,” Manning said.
Kwame Reed, Brentwood’s senior community development analyst, said the city has continued to see interest in its down payment assistance program and recently completed two loans.
“It just looks like there are a lot more people moving in,” Reed said.
A recent uptick in short sales in the past couple of months may indicate lenders are more willing to work with homeowners who have gone into default on their loans, said Margalit A. Ir, a mortgage lender with Bank of America in Brentwood.
But the process to complete a short sale transaction is often more drawn out than a foreclosure, and it can drag on for four months or longer, Ir said.
June saw the number of short sale listings in Brentwood increase 19 percent over May, but in Antioch, it was down 2.7 percent from May.