Banks Just Keep On Building Their REO's Portfolio

July showed the normal number of REO's going back to their respective lenders. For the entire county there were 185. The last few months have been very similar. Where things aren't that similar is how they were distributed.

The number of properties going back to the bank in the South County was 22. That is double the number of June. What could be the cause of the increase. My thoughts are this; Nobody is immune from the economic drama we find ourselves in. It just takes longer for it to reach some areas. I have no crystal ball, but we will probably see some similar numbers in the near future. I don't expect it to last that long though. My belief is that it took longer to hit this area and it will last a much shorter time.

Here are the specific numbers; Santa Barbara 12, Goleta 7, Carpinteria and Summerland 3. I expect August to be in the same ballpark, since the number of Notice of Defaults hasn't increased significantly, but stay tuned.

Northern Santa Barbara County is still the winner though with a total of 163. The reigning champ of REO's is still Santa Maria with 117. Lompoc had 36 properties on the list. The rest were spread out over the Santa Ynez Valley and outlying areas. These numbers are up just a few from June. This could be due to the fact July had 1 more working day than June.