Sonoma Canary

Below are the Notices of Default and Trustees Deeds for the county of Sonoma, as taken from the Sonoma County Assessor. I thought I would regularly post these as indicators of the real estate situation and "recovery" in California.

Note the drop in NODs and Trustees Deeds as the new California law (SB 1137) went into effect. It effectively delayed the foreclosure process, offering no real benefit or solution for house debtors. The numbers below appear to support its lack of effectiveness.

May '09: Notice how NODs are back to the high levels, yet Trustees Deeds are not back up to the previous levels (200-350). Give it time, however; this is still quite broken and disturbing. Do you see recovery in these number? BTW, Calculated Risk just posted an article on the Alt-A bomb exploding in Sonoma.

July '09 sets new record for NODs!!

NODs:
. . '08 . '09
Jan 451 . 394
Feb 513 . 468
Mar 498 . 553
Apr 509 . 497
May 505 . 491
Jun 492 . 562
Jul 460 . 615 New Monthly Record
Aug 482 . 425
Sep 191 . 399
Oct 178 . 379
Nov 241 . 079 - through Nov 6
Dec 500

* Sep '08: CA Law SB 1137 takes effect
* Dec '08: CA Law SB 1137 FAILS

Trustees Deeds:
. . '08 . '09
Jan 164 . 166
Feb 238 . 151
Mar 221 . 121
Apr 236 . 123
May 280 . 149
Jun 324 . 271
Jul 341 . 202
Aug 372 . 231
Sep 303 . 183
Oct 195 . 210
Nov 184 . 051 - through Nov 6
Dec 229

Sacramento Sorrow

Ok, here comes the Prime and Alt-A whiners. The bubble was obvious; if you participated you put yourself, your family, and your savings (assuming you used any for a purchase) at risk. Now we get a whole new breed of Shamers!

Ya' know, I remember a time when $500K was a LOT of money. But here's a guy that drank the kool-aid deeply. Go out and buy that $600K house on the golf course; live large; prices only go up; don't worry about the future. Well... it's time to give it all back.

Food for thought:
At the ripe old age of 55+, why would anyone want to take on crippling debt? As you approach your "golden" years you should be seeking security and zero debt.

2009-07-11: Mortgage defaults spread as even 'safe' borrowers falter
No longer is the real estate bust simply the result of exotic, subprime loans that doubled payments and blew up in homeowners' faces. As the Sacramento economy buckles, even the safest mortgages have become part of a new wave of loan defaults, experts say.

With capital-area job losses reaching 45,000 in the past year and unemployment at 11.1 percent, lenders, bankruptcy attorneys and debt counselors all say they're seeing rising delinquencies among prime borrowers with fixed-rate loans and good credit. Many of those slipping into trouble are state workers, the mainstay of Sacramento's economy.

There are 3.3 million of them in California – 56 percent of all mortgages. But nearly 4 percent were delinquent in the first quarter,

Already in the foreclosure process is Ron McClure of Roseville. He bought a $600,000 house at Sun City Roseville in 2003, using a prime, fixed-rate loan that cost him $3,200 a month.

That worked until the housing market collapsed. McClure, partner in a small home-building business, saw his income collapse with it. Six months ago, he stopped making payments on the house.
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Here is the house:
7681 Rosestone Ln, Roseville, CA 95747
3 beds, 2.5 baths, 2,538 sq ft
Zestimate®: $455,000

Sold 08/15/2003: $600,000
2008 Property Tax: $6,757

Kern County - Record Foreclosures

Lets continue the Kern County NOD and Foreclosure record tracking for Bakersfield Bubble.
Record NODs HERE.

California Insolvency is Here (?)

We're insolvent, I guess. Let's see what happens.

2009-07-01: California Prepares to Issue IOU's
Sacramento (myFOXla.com) - California's controller will start paying many of the state's bills with IOUs as soon as Thursday after lawmakers failed to close the state's worsening budget deficit, adding a new measure of indignity to a state sinking deeper into dysfunction.

2009-07-01: BofA to accept California IOUs
Bank of America said Wednesday that it will accept IOUs from the State of California from its customers through July 10.

“To support our customers, while giving the government additional time to pass a budget, we will accept California state-registered warrants - or IOUs -from existing customers and clients,” the bank said. “Based on state disbursement estimates, we will accept the registered warrants through July 10.”