Foreclosure Sales Up Countywide, Banning, But Not Beaumont

Foreclosure sales in Riverside County picked up last month, dovetailing with a statewide trend, a real estate tracking firm reported this week.

Bay Area-based ForeclosureRadar.com's monthly "Foreclosure Report," released Monday, showed a total 1,020 repossessed properties were sold countywide in October, compared to 864 in September, about an 18 percent increase.

Locally, that trend was the opposite: 

• In Beaumont, 28 foreclosed properties were sold in Oct. (down from 45 in Sept.)
• In Banning, 18 foreclosed properties were sold in Oct.  (up from 14 in Sept.)

The county's foreclosure sales, however, were down 22 percent from a year ago, when 1,311 homes were auctioned off, figures showed.

In California, sales of distressed properties rose 9 percent in October but were down 28 percent compared to the same period in 2011.

ForeclosureRadar.com founder Sean O'Toole expects foreclosure activity to be flat after the start of the year as the California Homeowner Bill of Rights goes into effect.

"This is another example of where changes in foreclosure trends are driven by government intervention, and not necessarily economic recovery," O'Toole said.

After Jan. 1, state law will require loan servicers to suspend any foreclosure proceeding during the time a mortgage holder is seeking a loan modification to prevent his or her property from being repossessed, and homeowners will have the ability to sue and seek monetary damages from servicers who fail to follow all legally required steps in a foreclosure proceeding.