Michael Jackson's Woes Continue!

I have been reading in the news lately about Michael Jackson and the Notice of Trustee Sale that was recorded against his property.



Since I'm in the business where this kind of public information is easy for me to get I decided to get a copy of the document if for nothing else to at least satisfy my curiosity.


After reading through it I thought it might be worth posting this short article on the drama playing out in Los Olivos.



The document was recorded on Monday Feb 25th at 8:12 in the morning. It references a Deed of Trust that was recorded April 14th 2006.


The amount of money referenced in the Trustees Sale Document is $24,525,906.61. This amount is not the full amount as there are additional monies that will be added on to that. At this time, I'm not able to figure out what those monies might entail.



The sale is scheduled to be on March 19th 2008, at 1pm at the County Courthouse 1100 Anacapa St. in Santa Barbara Ca.



The Trustees Deed doesn't mention the lender by name, but I did pull a copy of the trust deed and it is DBCG LLC whose address is in c/o Fortress Credit Corp. in New York.



The interesting part of the document is later on where it references all the personal property and begins to itemize many of the fixtures that The Neverland Ranch is famous for.


Some of the items listed are trains, carousels, and merry go rounds. They don't stop there, audio visual equipment (If I remember right there is a pretty good sized theatre on the property), computers, etc...



If I'm reading this document correctly they are even making sure that the use of the word "Neverland" is included in sale to some degree.



I can't help but think of the circus that has surrounded this property and it's owner ever since he bought this property. I have absolutely no idea if Mr. Jackson will be able to satisfy his lender or if the property will end up being auctioned on the courthouse steps or even end up in the lenders hands. The fate is truly up in the air from what I've heard. One way or another I'm expecting more of the circus of news and media coverage we have all been used to seeing.



I have attached a copy of the document so anyone who would like to can read it for themselves. See You In Escrow!

Santa Barbara Residential Lending Activity

Every month I do a little number crunching and come up with the numbers that reflect the residential lending activity for Santa Barbara's South Coast, as well as Lompoc and Santa Maria.

As you can see from the chart the number of non purchase transactions has dropped over 50% from March of 2007. January is not typically a busy month in general, but that is huge.

Our escrow officers have seen a big increase in the number of refinance escrows they are opening. I expect this number to begin to increase in future months.

It is the same story on the residential purchase loan side. January was down, and from what I know of February, it won't be much better.

On a positive note the open sale escrows in February have certainly shown signs of life. We have opened many more than in January. See You In Escrow!

Santa Barbara Foreclosure Info Jan 2008

The Santa Barbara Foreclosure Chart is showing some interesting changes now that we have a few months of data to compare.

The piece of the process that starts everything else is the recording of the Notice of Default. In January in Santa Barbara County there were 284 recorded, which is the largest number since the mortgage meltdown began.

The next step in the process is the recording of a Trustees Deed. For January there were 98 recorded. This is also the largest number we've seen. This is the number that leads to all the Bank owned properties for sale.

The Bank owned properties or more commonly referred to as REO's that sold in January stayed at the same number we saw in the previous 2 months, 17.

The last, but probably not least line on the chart is the number reflecting how many loans are being adjusted in a given month. You could argue that this is the number that starts all the others moving, but I haven't figured out if there is a direct relationship yet, so I'm holding out. This number for January was 139.

As you can see from the graph the number of loans that adjusted in January is down significantly, but will be climbing in April and May back to the 180 level. This coupled with the rise in the number of Notice of Defaults and Trustees Deeds makes me think we are seeing the worst of this.

I do expect a rise in the number of foreclosed properties being sold based on what we've seen the last 12 months. The number of sales occurring seems to be about 25% of the number of Trustees deeds we record, so with that in mind we may be seeing about 25 bank owned properties closing escrow in a given month in the not too distant future.

I think we are seeing the worst of it, knowing what I know about the number of loans that are going to adjust in the next 6 months. I also think there will be some positive impact on the market with respects to the stimulus package that is being implemented.

So all that is left to say is, See You In Escrow!