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California rank: 31 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate september 2012 3.12% Unemployment Rate 2.33% 10.2% year ago 4.15% 3.26% 11.7% percent point change -24.7% -28.4% -12.8% Top County Lake CounTy 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate september 2012 3.76% 4.09% year ago 4.21% 5.01% percent point change -10.7% -18.4% Top Core-Based Statistical area CLearLake, Ca 90+ Day Delinquency Rate Foreclosure Rate september 2012 3.76% 4.09% year ago 4.21% 5.01% percent point change -10.7% -18.4% note: The 90+ Day delinquecy rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans that are 90plus days delinquent. The foreclosure rate is the percentage of outstanding mortgage loans currently in foreclosure. State rank is based on the September 2012 foreclosure rate. All figures are rounded to the nearest decimal. The unemployment rate reflects preliminary September 2012 figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. All other data courtesy of Lender Processing Services. California Nordine Realtors Since 1990 Leo Nordine www.nordine.com - nordine@nordine.com over 3300 personal sales IN THE NEWS RES.NET Enhances Short Sale Portal RES.NET announced last month that its short sale portal has received an upgrade. Enhancements to the portal include improved tracking functionality and new tasks to help servicers adhere to regulatory and compliance standards. 92 Through the changes, the short sale portal is better able to track the time in which notices are generated; the portal also sends nightly email reminders to agents regarding outstanding tasks. In addition, RES.NET says it added new fields to screens in the portal to assist servicers with tracking deficiencies and incentives. The upgrade ensures servicers meet guidelines from the national mortgage servicing settlement reached in February. "The attorneys general settlement affects how all servicers must approach their internal processes, and applying the monumental changes necessary requires them to leverage technology," said Todd Mobraten, president and COO for RES.NET and parent company USRES. "The short sale portal gives them a way to manage the additional workload that comes with increasing legislation and while still easily communicating with all other participants. We continually update our portals, ensuring we provide technology that alleviates the burden of compliance and streamlines real estate transactions." The short sale portal is interconnected with RES.NET's five other portals for agents, buyers, sellers, asset managers, and vendors. The California-based company was established in 2003 as a subsidiary of USRES. FHFA Reveals 3rd Winner for REO Initiative, C.A.R. Voices Disapproval The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced a third bidder scooped up properties in three states for the agency's REO-to-rental initiative, leaving Atlanta as the sole metro in the program with no takers for its properties. Colony Capital, LLC purchased 970 properties in Los Angeles and Riverside, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada, the agency revealed, November 1. Colony Capital is a private real estate investment firm based in California. FHFA's REO initiative seeks to sell Fannie Mae foreclosures to institutional investors in hard-hit metros. The investors then convert the foreclosures to rental units. The 970 properties purchased by Colony Capital include 1,176 units, 752 of which are occupied, according to the transaction summary. Out of the 970 properties, 432 are in California, 328 in Phoenix, and 210 in Las Vegas. The estimated transaction value to Fannie Mae for the purchase was $176 million, and the third-party valuation for the property was $156.8 million, according to the summary. The purchase price represents 112.3 percent of the value of the properties. Previously, FHFA announced Pacifica Companies, LLC, purchased 699 Fannie Mae properties in Florida, while the Cogsville Group, LLC, bought 94 properties in Chicago. In California, the program was met with opposition by lawmakers and the California Association of Realtors (C.A.R.), who argued the program was not necessary in the state to clear out REO inventory. In a statement Monday, C.A.R. president LeFrancis Arnold didn't hold back from voicing his opinion on the matter and stated, "Fannie Mae and FHFA's decision to move forward with the REO bulk sale in California amounts to another gift to Wall Street at the expense of taxpayers." Arnold asserted the transaction will not only hurt taxpayers and prospective homebuyers, but will also delay a full recovery in the housing market. The association also called for a change in leadership at FHFA, stating the "botched execution of the REO bulk sales, and Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives and Home Affordable Refinance Program under FHFA's oversight and leadership has demonstrated a lack of understanding of the housing market." According to data from C.A.R., the median home price in the Inland Empire, or the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metropolitan area, rose 15 percent to $198,270 in September from $172,000 in February 2012, while unsold inventory went down to 3.8 months. The median home price in Los Angeles increased 37 percent over the same period, and inventory went down to 3.7 months. California Charges 26th Person in Bid Rigging Investigation Last month, a California real estate investor became the 26th person to plead guilty or agree to plead guilty as a result of antitrust investigations by the Justice Department into bid rigging and fraud. The ongoing investigations are focused on real estate foreclosure auctions in San Francisco, San Mateo, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties.