The Lenders Continue Their Foreclosures

October in Santa Barbara County saw lenders take back 109 properties countywide. That number is significantly lower than August or September where there were 211 and 208 respectively. That has to be good news for someone.

There were 17 properties total for the communities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, and Montecito. That is about a 20% decrease from the prior 2 months.

Lompoc saw only 20 or so properties in there area and Santa Maria continues to be the foreclosure captital in Santa Barbara County with 70ish properties going back to the bank in October.

The majority of the loan amounts appear to be below $500,000 with many in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. In the south county the number was split between homes and condominiums. In the northern part of the county there were very few condominiums.

Countrywide continued to have the most properties on the list, but they didn't overwhelm the list like they have in the previous months. Make sure to check out the map below to see more details for the properties and areas you are interested in.

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.

June Santa Barbara REO's

There is nothing unusual about June's list of REO's. They are spread out throughout the county just as you would suspect.

There were 11 properties between Carpinteria and Goleta.

The Santa Maria area had the largest number with 106.

Lompoc had 32.

The rest of the the properties taken back by the banks were scattered among Santa Ynez, Solvang, Guadalupe, & Buellton.

In reviewing the loan amounts you can see that most of the properties had loan amounts under $500,000. There were 2 properties whose loan amounts were over $1,000,000 and they were both in Santa Barbara.

The list of lenders wouldn't surprise you either. All the major players are represented with multiple properties on the list. A couple of the lenders that have been in the news most recently like IndyMac and Countrywide are certainly busy taking back property.

Some of the other lenders are Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Deutsche Bank, & Chase.