Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Understanding Efforts To Prevent California Foreclosures From Spinning Out Of Control

By Jack Bennington

Looking at efforts to keep California foreclosures under control and from increasing greatly in California will mean first of all looking at how these foreclosures began to increase over the last two or three years. Naturally, much of it can be chalked up to the penchant for speculation along with certain structural defects in California's real estate markets as well.

For starters, most everybody in the real estate industry understands and accepts that real estate in California is pricier than real estate in most other parts of the country. There are notable exceptions, of course (Honolulu, Marin County and Boston come immediately to mind). The false assumption that California real estate could continue to climb forever has now proven to be just that; false.

Sadly, large numbers of real estate owners and investors bought into that myth, despite plenty of warnings that every economic boom is inevitably followed by a downturn or a bust. The current downturn, after it finally showed, was noticeably acute and more vigorous than it might have been had so much not taken so long to build up. When the top blew off, in other words, it blew off strongly.

There was also an issue with how the state's real estate markets at once benefited from and was harmed by the matter of property taxes and how they were raised in California over the last several decades. Proposition 13 and how it regulated the raising of property taxes -- which some feel artificially held down property tax rates -- may have also affected California real estate adversely, some believe.

For anybody who was out looking at property in California, it's certainly the case that Proposition 13 tended to make Golden State real estate look attractive because of its damper on property tax raises. With taxes relatively reasonable, at least for California, a large number of buyers jumped into the markets over the decades. When the recession hit, though, the markets were bound to be affected more intensely than might usually have been the case.

Now, the Golden State is trying to dig out of a hole created in part by a steep rate of increase in CA foreclosures that it might not have had to deal with if it were not for these sorts of structural defects. In 2009, the Golden State enacted into law the "California Foreclosure Prevention Act" as a way to help slow down the rate of residential foreclosures.

Basically, what it does is impose on lenders another 90 day waiting period that helps to forestall a notice of default served by the lender, which also helps to put off the publication of a notice of trustee sale that California usually requires. Homeowners need to meet certain criteria, but many are doing so in order to try to keep control of their properties.

Even though California foreclosures have climbed steadily to heights not seen just several years ago, that rate actually shows some signs of decline and improvement though there are an equal number of economic experts who say that it is sure to climb further in the future. At present, what's more important is that California is trying to stop the bleeding and stabilize its rate and force it down. There are many people who are hoping it succeeds, and soon.

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