WARNING! Bank of America's Foreclosure Freeze Does NOT Mean What You May Think!

Just a quick note to clarify this past Friday's news about Bank of America halting foreclosures, effective today, in all 50 states, (obviously) including Califorina.
PLEASE NOTE- The foreclosure world has a jargon all its own. REMEMBER there are TWO meanings to the word "foreclosure."

The foreclosure, also known as the trustee sale, is when the bank sells your home, usually at the court steps in your city or area to a cash wielding investor, or "sells it back to itself" (translation: when an investor doesn't buy it).

However, the foreclosure process, also known as the default process, or "being in default," is when the bank is going through the necessary steps to foreclose on your home.

Bank of America is halting their FORECLOSURES in all 50 states. That does NOT mean they are halting their FORECLOSURE PROCESS. If this moratorium on foreclosing homes lasts for 30 days, then everyone will be one month further in to the foreclosure process, and thus one month closer to being foreclosed on.

Could it be there may be a drastic increase on foreclosures when this moratorium is over, because all these distressed mortgages had time to continue closer to an inevitable foreclosure when the homeowners thought they were safe?

Bank of America Extending Foreclosure Freeze to ALL 50 States

by Michael Moore, Bloomberg
Article here

Bank of America Corp., the biggest U.S. lender, extended a freeze on foreclosures to all 50 states as concern spread among federal and local officials that homes are being seized based on false data.

“We just want to clear the air,” Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Brian T. Moynihan said today in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ally Financial Inc. already froze foreclosures in 23 states where courts supervise home seizures amid allegations that employees used unverified or false data to speed the process. Bank of America’s new policy extends its moratorium to the entire nation, and the announcement spurred more demands from public officials and community groups for other banks to follow suit.

“All mortgage providers should follow the example of Bank of America and review their practices to ensure that they are not unfairly targeting homeowners in Nevada and across the nation,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, said today in a statement.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. halted sales of foreclosed homes for a month to review documents in its mortgage servicing procedures, according to an Oct. 4 memo the Pittsburgh-based bank sent to lawyers handling the lender’s foreclosures.

Bank of America fell 13 cents, or 1 percent, to $13.18 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have lost 12 percent this year.

States Investigating

“We will stop foreclosure sales until our assessment has been satisfactorily completed,” the Charlotte, North Carolina- based company said today in a statement. “Our ongoing assessment shows the basis for foreclosure decisions is accurate.”

At least seven states are investigating claims that home lenders and loan servicers took shortcuts to speed foreclosures. Attorneys general in Ohio and Connecticut have said some of the practices used by banks to take away homes may amount to fraud. Acting Comptroller of the Currency John Walsh last week asked the nation’s seven biggest lenders to review foreclosures for defective documents, spokesman Bryan Hubbard said.

“Bank of America has done the right thing by stopping foreclosures in all 50 states,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said today in a statement. “Other banks that have questionable procedures should do the same while the investigation continues.”

President Barack Obama’s administration didn’t pressure the bank to enact the freeze, Moynihan said.

Record Foreclosures

Lenders took possession of a record 95,364 homes in August and issued foreclosure filings to 338,836 homeowners, or one of every 381 U.S. households, according to RealtyTrac Inc., an Irvine, California-based data vendor.

Wells Fargo spokeswoman Vickee Adams said the lender is still processing foreclosures and referred to a statement the bank put out earlier this week, saying “our affidavit procedures and daily auditing demonstrate that our foreclosure affidavits are accurate.”

Thomas Kelly, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, and Gina Proia, spokeswoman for Detroit-based Ally, declined to comment.

“Bank of America has made the right choice given the circumstances of this scandal,” said Kevin Stein, associate director of the California Reinvestment Coalition in San Francisco. “The primary concern for all of these banks should be to figure out where they are handling foreclosures illegally before they erroneously and unfairly take another family’s home.”

Lawmakers React

In Washington, dozens of lawmakers in Congress have called for a freeze on foreclosures and are seeking investigations. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Edolphus Towns yesterday demanded a moratorium and asked New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to investigate allegations of fraud. Towns, a New York Democrat, led hearings last year into Bank of America’s federal bailouts.

“The implications of ignoring the foreclosure problems are far too great to be ignored,” Towns said in a statement. “Bank of America did the right thing today and I expect to see every other responsible banking institution follow their lead.”

On Wednesday, two members of the House Financial Services Committee, Luis Gutierrez of Illinois and Dennis Moore of Kansas, asked the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program to investigate foreclosure practices.

‘Unwarranted Foreclosures’

“There is already enough evidence of unwarranted foreclosures and irregularities by lenders and servicers to warrant full investigations into the practices of these financial institutions,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter.

A coalition of community organizer groups and labor unions, including the National People’s Action and the Service Employees International Union, called for a national freeze on foreclosures.

“It is unconscionable that Wall Street banks continue to use a corrupt and fraudulent procedure to flood the housing market with illegal foreclosures that are throwing millions of American families out of their homes,” the groups said in a statement today. “It’s the latest example of a predatory industry.”

GREAT NEWS For California Distressed Homeowners!

I received this great piece of news today in an e-mail from the California Association of Realtors:

Starting January 1, 2011, a seller's first trust deed lender cannot obtain a deficiency judgment against the seller after a short sale. Providing written consent to a short sale shall obligate the first trust deed lender to accept the sales proceeds as full payment and discharge of the remaining amount owed on the loan. This law applies to first trust deeds secured by one-to-four residential units, but does not limit the lender from seeking damages for fraud or waste by the borrower. Senate Bill 931. Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed Senate Bill 1178, our sponsored bill, which would have extended California's anti-deficiency protection to refinance loans.

THIS IS AWESOME FOR DISTRESSED HOMEOWNERS IN CALIFORNIA! IF YOU HAVE BEEN WAFFLING ON THE IDEA OF DOING A SHORT SALE, THIS SHOULD HELP YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO DO IT! CALL US TODAY FOR MORE INFORMATION!

Bank of America Halting Foreclosures in 23 States - CALIFORNIA IS NOT ONE OF THEM!

(Of all the articles on this topic I found, this is the only one that shares the states included.)

Alan Zibel, Associated Press
Article link here

WASHINGTON — Bank of America is delaying foreclosures in 23 states as it examines whether it rushed the foreclosure process for thousands of homeowners without reading the documents.

The move adds the nation's largest bank to a growing list of mortgage companies whose employees signed documents in foreclosure cases without verifying the information in them.

Bank of America isn't able to estimate how many homeowners' cases will be affected, Dan Frahm, a spokesman for the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank, said Friday. He said the bank plans to resubmit corrected documents within several weeks.

Two other companies, Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage unit and JPMorgan Chase, have halted tens of thousands of foreclosure cases after similar problems became public.

The document problems could cause thousands of homeowners to contest foreclosures that are in the works or have been completed. If the problems turn up at other lenders, a foreclosure crisis that's already likely to drag on for several more years could persist even longer. Analysts caution that most homeowners facing foreclosure are still likely to lose their homes.

State attorneys general, who enforce foreclosure laws, are stepping up pressure on the industry.

On Friday, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal asked a state court to freeze all home foreclosures for 60 days. Doing so "should stop a foreclosure steamroller based on defective documents," he said.

And California Attorney General Jerry Brown called on JPMorgan to suspend foreclosures unless it could show it complied with a state consumer protection law. The law requires lenders to contact borrowers at risk of foreclosure to determine whether they qualify for mortgage assistance.

In Florida, the state attorney general is investigating four law firms, two with ties to GMAC, for allegedly providing fraudulent documents in foreclosure cases. The Ohio attorney general asked judges this week to review GMAC foreclosure cases.

Mark Paustenbach, a Treasury Department spokesman, said the Treasury has asked federal regulators "to look into these troubling developments." And the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks, has asked seven big banks to examine their foreclosure processes.

"We both want to see that they fix the processing problems, but also to look to see whether there is specific harm" to homeowners, John Walsh, the agency's acting director told lawmakers Thursday.

A document obtained Friday by the Associated Press showed a Bank of America official acknowledging in a legal proceeding that she signed up to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month and typically didn't read them.

The official, Renee Hertzler, said in a February deposition that she signed 7,000 to 8,000 foreclosure documents a month.

"I typically don't read them because of the volume that we sign," Hertzler said.

She also acknowledged identifying herself as a representative of a different bank, Bank of New York Mellon, that she didn't work for. Bank of New York Mellon served as a trustee for the investors holding the homeowner's loan.

Hertzler could not be reached for comment.

A lawyer for the homeowner in the case, James O'Connor of Fitchburg, Mass., said such problems are rampant throughout the industry.

"We have had thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of foreclosures around the country by entities that did not have the right to foreclose," O'Connor said.

The disclosure comes two days after JPMorgan said it would temporarily stop foreclosing on more than 50,000 homes so it could review documents that might contain errors. Last week, GMAC halted certain evictions and sales of foreclosed homes in 23 states to review those cases after finding procedural errors in some foreclosure affidavits.

Consumer advocates say the problems are widespread across the lending industry.

"The general level of sloppiness is pervasive around the industry," said Diane Thompson, counsel at the National Consumer Law Center.

Vickee Adams, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo & Co., said Wells' "policies, procedures and practices satisfy us that the affidavits we sign are accurate."

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citigroup Inc., said the bank "reviews document handling processes in our foreclosure group on an ongoing basis, and we have strong training to ensure that appropriate employees are fully aware of the proper procedures."

Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said Friday they're directing companies they work with that collect loan payments to follow proper procedures.

In some states, lenders can foreclose quickly on delinquent mortgage borrowers. By contrast, the 23 states in which Bank of America is delaying foreclosures use a lengthy court process. They require documents to verify information on the mortgage, including who owns it.

Those states are:

Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont and Wisconsin.

__

AP Business Writer Christopher S. Rugaber contributed to this report.

Chase Bank Halting Foreclosures in 23 States - CALIFORNIA IS NOT ONE OF THEM

Diana Olick CNBC

Article link here

JPMorgan Chase has announced it will re-examine documents filed in current foreclosure cases.

The review could affect at least 56,000 foreclosures. JPMorgan Chase is the third largest mortgage servicer in the nation, with $1.35 trillion in business and a 12.6 percent market share, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

"It has come to our attention that in some cases employees in our mortgage foreclosure operations may have signed affidavits about loan documents on the basis of file reviews done by other personnel—without the signer personally having reviewed those loan files," says JPMorgan spokesman Tom Kelly.

In the meantime, the company has requested that the courts not enter judgments in pending matters until the review is complete, a process they say should take a couple weeks.

"We believe the accuracy of the factual loan information contained in the affidavits was not affected by whether or not the signer had personal knowledge of the precise details," Kelly adds.

About 7.5 percent of total Chase servicing is either three months or more in default or in foreclosures, "which translates to about half a million borrowers either already in foreclosure or heading towards foreclosure," says Guy Cecala, CEO and publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

Ally Financial / GMAC Halting Foreclosre Process in 23 States - CALIFORNIA IS NOT ONE OF THEM

by Ariana Eunjung Cha Washington Post
Article link here

Some of the nation's largest mortgage companies used a single document processor who said he signed off on foreclosures without having read the paperwork - an admission that may open the door for homeowners across the country to challenge foreclosure proceedings.
The legal predicament compelled Ally Financial, the nation's fourth-largest home lender, to halt evictions of homeowners in 23 states this week. Now it appears hundreds of other companies, including mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, may also be affected because they use Ally to service their loans.
As head of Ally's foreclosure document processing team, 41-year-old Jeffrey Stephan was required to review cases to make sure the proceedings were legally justified and the information was accurate. He was also required to sign the documents in the presence of a notary.
In a sworn deposition, he testified that he did neither.
The reason may be the sheer volume of the documents he had to hand-sign: 10,000 a month. Stephan had been at that job for five years.
How the nation's foreclosure system became reliant on the tedious work of a few corporate bureaucrats is still a matter that mortgage lenders are trying to answer. While the lenders may have had legitimate cause to foreclose, the mishandling of the paperwork has given homeowners ammunition in their fight against foreclosure and has drawn the attention of state law enforcement officials.
Ally spokesman James Olecki called the problem with the documents "an important but technical defect." He said the papers were "factually accurate" but conceded that "corrective action" may have to be taken in some cases and that others may "require court intervention."
Olecki said the company services loans "from hundreds of different lenders," but he declined to provide names.
Spokesmen for Fannie and Freddie confirmed Tuesday after inquiries from The Washington Post that they use Ally, formerly called GMAC, to oversee some mortgages. The companies have launched internal reviews to assess the scope of any potential issues.
Ally, Fannie and Freddie - all troubled mortgage companies that received extraordinary bailouts by the federal government during the financial crisis - declined to say how many loans might be affected. The Treasury Department, which owns a majority stake in Ally and seized Fannie and Freddie in 2008, also declined to comment.
Fannie and Freddie, created by Congress to finance mortgages and encourage homeownership, have in recent years been repossessing houses at record numbers. Fannie alone reported recently that 450,000 of its single-family loans were seriously delinquent or in the foreclosure process as of June 30. That's nearly 5 percent of the loans it guarantees.
Lawyers defending homeowners have accused some of the nation's largest lenders of foreclosing on families without verifying all of the information in a case, but it has been hard for them to stop foreclosure proceedings.
Ally's moratorium comprises only the 23 states - none in the Washington area - that mandate a court judgment before a lender can take possession of a property. But if Stephan signed documents related to foreclosures in states without this requirement (it's unclear whether he did), it could help a much broader range of borrowers.
Iowa Assistant Attorney General Patrick Madigan, chair of a national foreclosure prevention group composed of state attorneys general and lenders, said the fallout from the Ally review could be enormous because Stephan's actions could be considered an unfair and deceptive practice.
"If servicers are submitting court documents that aren't true or that have not been verified, that is of great concern," Madigan said.
Stephan's job at Ally was arguably one of the least enviable in the mortgage business: formally signing off on foreclosure papers that his company would submit to the courts to get approval to evict delinquent homeowners and resell their homes.
From his office in suburban Philadelphia, Stephan oversaw a team of 13 employees that brought documents to him for his signature at a rapid clip. Stephan did not respond to messages left at his work and home.
His official title was team leader of the document execution unit of Ally's foreclosure department, but consumer advocates call him the company's "super robot signor" or "affidavit slave."
In sworn depositions taken in December and June for two separate court cases involving families trying to keep their homes, Stephan revealed his shortcuts when reviewing the files. He said he would glance at the borrower's names, the debt owed and a few other numbers but would not read through all the documents as legally required. He would then sign them. The files were packed up in bulk and sent off for notarization several days later.
Stephan testified he did not know how the "summary judgment" affidavits he signed were used in judicial foreclosure cases.
At the rate Stephan was reviewing files, if he worked an eight-hour day he would have had an average of only 1.5 minutes for each document.
"A ridiculous amount of time for something so critically important," said Thomas Cox, an attorney in Maine who was one of those who deposed Stephan. He added that Maine and Florida law enforcement officials are investigating the matter.
Stephan was the only employee signing papers for foreclosures that were to be submitted to courts that did not involve bankruptcies. The latter cases, which were more complex, were handled by a separate department.
Olecki said Stephan still works for Ally but added, "We cannot comment further about his position."
While several large lenders contacted by The Post declined to talk about the document review process for foreclosures, attorneys working on behalf of homeowners said the setup at Ally was not unusual.
Christopher Immel, an attorney in Florida who deposed Stephan for a case in Palm Beach County, said he thinks Stephan was not a rogue employee but one that was performing his job responsibilities as the company told him to do.
"GMAC has a business model to do this, and Stephan was just one small part of it," Immel said. "He was under the impression it was okay to do this."
Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

WARNING! A MUST SEE VIDEO on The Foreclosure Epidemic!

This video will show exactly how big of a problem defaults and foreclosures are becoming in California. It is an EYE-OPENER! Click to watch.

11th Hour Trustee Sale Date Postponed!

Wells Fargo trustee sale postponed day of sale!

Trustee Sale Date Postponed!

Bank of America trustee sale postponed!

6 of Top 12 Metro Areas in America with Most Foreclosures are CALIFORNIA CITIES! New Video!

New Video Series - Frequently Asked Questions About Short Sales Answered

I created 9 videos asnwering the most often asked questions regarding short sales. Each one has a link to the remaining questions. They were created to help home owners decide if a short sale is best for them.

Home Ownership Falls To Lowest In Decade- Driven By Foreclosures

Here's a VERY good reason why NOW is the time to short sale. We are having a glut of homes in inventory. Just try to comprehend that for a moment- Interest rates are sitting at around 4% for a 30 year Conventional Loan, around 5% for FHA! Those are INSANE interest rates! Some Conventional Loans can get UNDER 4%! AND WE STILL HAVE TOO MUCH SUPPLY AND NOT ENOUGH DEMAND! Consumer confidence is low. People are scared to buy, banks are scared to loan. Result? Home values will drop even more.
Short sale. Get out of the mess NOW. Count down the months until you can buy again. Buy when values are still low, before you would have been able to due to foreclosure. Then sit on equity. Slam dunk.

Bloomberg article here.

First three paragraphs:
About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade.
The number of vacant properties, including foreclosures, residences for sale and vacation homes, rose from 18.6 million in the year-earlier quarter, the U.S. Census Bureau said in a report today. The ownership rate, meaning households that own their own residence, was 66.9 percent, the lowest since 1999.
Lenders are accelerating foreclosures as borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments after the worst housing crash since the Great Depression. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized in the second quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc. Foreclosures probably will top 1 million this year, the Irvine, California- based data company said in a July 15 report.

I Can Short Sale Your Home in ANY City in California!

It doesn't matter if your home is in Los Angeles or Eureka, from Sacramento to San Francisco, from Palo Alto to Bakersfield. I can get your home short sale approved! The benefits for doing a short sale are, in my opinion, OVERWHELMINGLY in your favor. I would love to go over them with you! Please call me today and let's see what we can do for you!

Mike Towers

661-706-6922 (office)

RE/MAX Magic

Fastest Growing RE/Max Office in the World!

Homes and Estates Magazine

http://www.handemagazine.com/

Bakersfield 5th Worst Residential Real Estate Market In Country

The Bakersfield area was the fifth worst residential real estate market in the nation in January based on mortgage delinquency rates, foreclosures and other signs of a deeply troubled housing market.
That's according to the latest monthly report from First American CoreLogic, a housing data firm based in Santa Ana.

Full article here.

Bakersfield Californian - www.bakersfield.com

Bakersfield 8th in the Nation in Foreclosures

According to an article from bakersfield.com, RealtyTrac reported last month that Bakersfield ranks 8th in the Nation in number of foreclosures compared to number of total homes (1 out of every 118 houses is a foreclosure).

The foreclosure problem is NOT going away. This is why it is so important to consider a short sale! Give us a call today!

Full article:

Bakersfield ranks No. 8 for the top foreclosure rates nationally last month, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine-based real estate data firm, figures released today show.
Six California cities registered foreclosure rates among the top 10: Modesto at No. 3 (one in every 107 housing units); Stockton at No. 4 (one in 107); Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 5 (one in 109); Merced at No. 6 (one in 109); Vallejo-Fairfield at No. 7 (one in 112); and Bakersfield at No. 8 (one in 118).
RealtyTrac's U.S. Foreclosure Market Report examines foreclosure filings including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions.
There were problems with 315,716 U.S. properties last month, a decrease of nearly 10 percent from December but still 15 percent above the level reported in January 2009. The report also showed one in every 409 U.S. housing units received a foreclosure filing in January.

Do You Have A Question?

**NEW FEATURE**

Do you have a question about short sales, loan modifications, or real estate in general? Submit your question and we will work on answering your question in our NEW video blog FAQ feature. Look for questions answered soon!

You can submit your question by posting a comment, or e-mailing us at:

miketowers@cbbakersfield.com

IndyMac, Loan Modifications and the FDIC

If you, or someone you know, is attempting to get a loan modification through Indymac Bank, PREPARE TO BE VERY TICKED OFF!

New Classified Ad

If You Are Not Yet Late On Home Mortgage Payments, Starting Loan Modification Will HURT Your Credit

The beginning phase of a loan modification is a "trial loan modification" which will hurt your credit. Most people who apply for a loan modification are already late on their payments, so the effects are barely seen. However, if you apply for a loan modification and have not yet missed a payment, the process will hurt your credit score!

http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/28/news/economy/loan_modifications_credit_history/index.htm

Short Sale Testimony

"Mike Towers took care of selling our home as a short sale and we are grateful for it. We worked with our bank for many months trying to negotiate a loan modification, but the bank would not offer us a plan that was workable in our situation. Even though the bank originally refused the short sale and asked for more money than the home was worth, Mike negotiated on our behalf, got the bank to accept the short sale at fair market value, and made sure we did not have to contribute funds to close the deal. Now, we can focus on life without the burden of our upside-down mortgage. Thank you very much, Mike!"

-Mr. & Mrs. S.

The Biggest Benefit of Doing A Short Sale

According to procedures from Fannie Mae (in regards to conventional loans) and the Federal Housing Administration (in regards to first-time home buyers assistance loans - "FHA loans"), a homeowner who is foreclosed on by their lender may have to wait 5-7 years before they will be allowed to qualify for another home loan.

However, if that same homeowner sells their home as a short sale (called a pre-foreclosure), the may qualify in as little as 2-3 years. That is a chance to own a home again 3-4 years SOONER than allowing the home to go to foreclosure.

In this market, it is very likely that home values will still be low in the next 2-3 years. There are many foreclosures that banks still have to sell, and many people every day are still going into default due to alarmingly lost value in their homes (a large percentage of homes today are "upside-down," meaning the homeowners owe more money on their mortgage than the home is worth). Because of that, someone who short sells their home now, can use the money they are saving (paying only rent instead of a mortgage) to pay off debt and save for their next home purchase. Then, they would be able to purchase a home sooner, and probably for much lower of a cost than if they were foreclosed on, waited 5-7 years, and purchased a home when home values had more time to go even higher.

For more information, or to ask questions about this tremendous benefit to doing a short sale, please reply to this post, or give me a call at 661-616-3601.

Short Sale Testimony

"Mike Towers was very efficient handling our short sale. He priced our property aggressively to get an offer quickly, so we wouldn't have to worry about weeks and weeks of showings. We were faced with a trustee's sale, and Mike negotiated on our behalf to postpone the foreclosure so our short sale could be reviewed and approved. Mike's experience with short sales paid off because we had bank approval very quickly Thank you very much Mike! This was a very stress free experience."

-Mr. & Mrs. B.

December 12- Short Sale Informational Seminar!

Announcing our Short Sale Informational Seminar! Come and learn the benefits and options with doing a short sale for your home. Ask any questions you may have to decide if this is the best option for you!

Topics that will be covered include:

-The freedom that comes from doing a short sale

-Why 54% of Loan Modifications DO NOT WORK

-What to watch out for- Loan Modification SCAM ARTISTS

-How a short sale works for YOUR BENEFIT

-Why it is important to have the

RIGHT agent doing your short sale

-Why prices are NOT getting better

anytime soon (and probably for years)

-How you can short sale your home, in as little time as possible, as easily as possible, for FREE

Our next Short Sale Informational Seminar will be:

Saturday, December 12th, from 10am - Noon

Call 661-616-3601 to reserve your seat today!

Market Review: October 2009

As of November, 2009, there are 2,646 residential properties for sale on the market in Kern County.
In October, 771 homes sold.
That is a 3 1/2 month supply of homes if no other homes come on the market.
During October 1126 homes were listed.

Of the homes currently for sale...

108 of these homes are priced above $500,000.
During October 8 of these homes sold.
That’s a 13 1/2 month supply in this price range if no others come on the market.
During October 24 additional homes in this price range were listed.

343 of these homes are priced $250,001-$500,000.
During October 67 of these homes sold.
That’s a 5 month supply in this price range if no others come on the market.
During October 114 additional homes in this price range were listed.

770 of these homes are priced $150,001-$250,000.
During October 215 of these homes sold.
That’s a 3 1/2 month supply in this price range if no others come on the market.
During October 311 additional homes in this price range were listed.

1426 of these homes are priced under $150,000.
During October 484 of these homes sold.
That’s a 3 month supply in this price range if no others come on the market.
During October 676 additional homes in this price range were listed.

Number of homes sold in Kern County per month:
January – 671
February – 682
March – 845
April – 884
May – 665
June – 828
July – 508
August – 459
September - 487
October - 771

Note: The "month supply" means the number of months it would take to sell the current number of homes at the current rate, with no change in factors. The month supply for EVERY category increased since last checked (for June), meaning it now takes longer to get through our inventory of homes than it did in June. We also now have slightly more homes currently on the market than since last checked (early July).