Ever wonder how your neighbors, who stopped paying their mortgage a year ago, are still living in their beautiful Orange County home? For free? It’s not fair, as it negatively impacts those of us who do pay our mortgages, but it is a reality. And it’s taking lenders 30% longer to complete a foreclosure in Orange County than a year ago, with the time needed to process a sale or repossession now stretching well past a year. A recent report from ForeclosureRadar.com shows that it takes Orange County lenders an average of 411 days to foreclose on an OC home from the filing of a default notice (first step in the foreclosure process) to the actual “trustee sale,” or auction in which bidders either buy a home or let it go back to the bank. That’s up almost 100 days since August 2010.
There is a legal process to follow. First, lenders must wait at least 90 days after a borrower stops making loan payments to file a default notice, meaning that a family could actually live in the home they are not paying for for actually a minimum of 501 days — a year and 4 1/2 months — before the foreclosure is complete. And since Orange County, CA lenders are overwhelmed with the number of home foreclosures, the actual time a borrower can spend in a home without paying anything is even longer, and easily could stretch out to 1 1/2 years and beyond. What’s more, the eviction of an Orange County homeowner after a foreclosure can take anywhere from several days to several months.
While living in a beautiful Orange County home for free might sound like a great deal, having a foreclosure on your record can ruin your credit for years; meaning you will have trouble qualifying for a home loan down the road. I encourage my buyers to purchase a home within their means so that they do not have to deal with the exhausting, stressful, and credit-ruining process that is a home foreclosure.
If you have a good job and good credit, there is no reason you shouldn’t qualify for a home loan and take advantage of today’s record low interest rates! Call me, Cheryl Marquis, today for more information on buying and selling in Orange County!
