A Year of Trustee Sales

October 15, 2007
The past week I read and heard in the news a great deal of data concerning the real estate market and the huge number of foreclosures. Since I subscribe to Dataquick, one of the foremost data gathering companies, I search the site for the recorded "Notices of Default", the "Notices of Trustee's Sales" and the properties that actually go to sale and are now owned by the lenders. What I have seen is that there are many more "Notices of Default" recorded than there are properties that actually go back to the lender. The following is a year of data compiled from Dataquick from August 2006 to August 2007. (I thank Chris Akins at Ticor Title for researching this report.)
The report shows the number of single family residences (SFR)in a given city, the actual number of trustees sales (TS)for the 2006-2007 year.
Bloomington..................5,228 SFR...........40 TS
Calimesa.........................1,067 SFR...........8 TS
Colton.............................9,262 SFR...........70 TS
Fontana..........................38,635 SFR.........335 TS
Grand Terrace...............2,936 SFR...........12 TS
Highland........................11,484 SFR..........71 TS
Loma Linda....................3,401 SFR...........3 TS
Moreno Valley................37,249 SFR.........625 TS
Redlands.........................16,057 SFR.........36 TS
Rialto..............................19,268 SFR.........236 TS
Riverside........................81,067 SFR.........582 TS
San Bernardino.............40,662 SFR........411 TS
Yucaipa..........................11,171 SFR...........36 TS

The number of single family homes may not include some of the new construction as it takes some time before the Assessor's roles are updated.
The outstanding fact that stands out from these statistics is that the trustees sales are, in every city, 1% or less of the total single family residences. Yes, the number of foreclosures has risen and is rising, but it is not at all in the same proportions as we saw in the 1990s.