Lis pendens filings continued to rise in seven counties across the country, albeit at a slow pace. Lis pendens, or notice of default in states with non-judicial foreclosures, is a written notice that notifies the court and the owner of the troubled property that the latter defaulted on its mortgage payments.
Filing the notice of default is the first step in the foreclosure process. The notice includes the troubled property and a legal description of the case. Lis pendens is referred in some publications as pre-foreclosure because it occurs before the foreclosure. In the event that the defendant failed to avoid foreclosure, the troubled property will be sold in a foreclosure sale.
Results from a recent market study showed that the number of notices of default filed in seven of the eight counties declined by 15 percent in August compared with July. The biggest drop in filings was registered in Cook County, Illinois and Riverside, California. In Riverside, pre-foreclosure numbers declined by almost 41 percent and 31 percent in Cook County.
Miami-Dade County in Florida registered the smallest pre-foreclosure drop rate of .27 percent in August. According to industry experts, Miami-Dade helped push up Florida's rank in the foreclosure rate list in the country.
Out of the eight counties studied, only Maricopa posted an increase in foreclosure filings by 2.44 percent in August. Counties that posted a drop in the number of foreclosure filings are Los Angeles by 17.83 percent, San Diego by 15.58 percent, Orange by 16 percent and San Bernardino by 9.86 percent.
On the other hand, in Stamford, Connecticut, foreclosure filings continued to rise despite hope for a housing market rebound. In the first half of this year, foreclosure filings in the city rose to 2,380, which is more than 68 percent from the 1,414 filed for the same period the previous year. The six-month figure also represented a 70 percent increase compared with the last six months of 2008.
According to industry experts, the number of foreclosure filings does not reflect the true state of the foreclosure problem as not all postings resulted to actual foreclosures. Additionally, experts said that despite the slowing of lis pendens in some areas, there is still a great possibility that the numbers will pick up speed again due to the growing unemployment rate.
