The new statistics are for the month of May…and they’re mixed. 22% fewer California properties went through some type of foreclosure filing compared with the same time last year. But it’s not that simple.

There are three kinds of “foreclosure activities”: default notices, foreclosure auctions and REOs or bank repossessions.

 

“What’s driving the decreases in California is the notices of default.”

 

RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist says those notice are down 43% from last year at this time.

 

“But if you look at the other end of the foreclosure process, the REOs – the properties that are completing foreclosure, those are actually up 22% in California.”

 

Blomquist says that’s because lenders are working through a backlog of distressed properties that built up after government moratoriums on foreclosures slowed the pace of people losing their homes. And he says lenders are expected to ramp up the pace of completing those foreclosures for the rest of the year.