Foreclosures Up in Murrieta But Not Near Highest Level

Foreclosure sales in Riverside County spiked in January, real estate trackers said last week.

The number is still about half what it was in March 2010 in Murrieta, however. In January, 384 Murrieta homeowners had some type of new foreclosure action taken. That number was almost 800 last March, according to RealtyTrac.com.

Temecula topped cities in Southwest Riverside County for foreclosures in January. One in every 64 homes were foreclosed on last month in Murrieta, while one in every 93 in Temecula were foreclosed. Menifee saw one in every 37 and Lake Elsinore saw one in every 68; countywide, it was one in every 113.

Bay Area-based ForeclosureRadar.com's “Foreclosure Report'' showed that 1,643 repossessed properties were auctioned in Riverside County in January, a 20 percent rise compared to 1,359 sales in December.

Countywide foreclosure sales were down 21 percent from the same month a year ago, when 2,096 homes were sold.

In California, 17,340 foreclosure sales were recorded in January, a 51 percent rise compared to 11,431 sales in December. Sales, however, were down 1 percent compared to January 2010, the report said.

ForeclosureRadar.com founder Sean O'Toole said one explanation for the month-to-month surge is that many lenders ended moratoriums on foreclosure filings triggered by the “robo-signing'' scandal.

“Robo-signing'' allegedly involved banks cutting corners in processing tens of thousands of foreclosure documents, failing to vet them closely, leading to doubts about equity, the validity of claims and other issues, according to published reports.
Five major lenders instituted voluntary suspensions of foreclosures during the last quarter of the year.

The average foreclosure sale price in Murrieta is $241,269; in Temecula it’s $288,164.

Homeowners at risk of defaulting on their mortgages may be eligible for taxpayer-funded financial assistance under a series of programs established by the California Housing Finance Agency.

The agency has fully implemented four programs initiated last summer that provide up to $50,000 in aid to qualifying homeowners. The U.S. Treasury allocated close to $2 billion from its “Hardest Hit Fund” to CalHFA for distribution to financially strapped California residents either in foreclosure or on the brink of it.

“Our goal is to get the very most out of these federal dollars to assist California families,” said CalHFA Executive Director Steven Spears. “With families struggling through a number of financial hardships and the disruption in the real estate market, these programs will help those in need while stabilizing neighborhoods and communities severely impacted by foreclosures.”

The CalHFA programs are part of the agency’s “Keep Your Home California” initiative. Details are available at KeepYourHomeCalifornia.org.

Money will be disbursed on a case-by-case basis, according to CalHFA. Riverside County had the second-highest foreclosure rate in the state last year, with more than 7 percent of the county’s housing stock in foreclosure.

City News Service contributed to the report.