J.P.Morgan Chase and Citigroup both formally announced stopping new foreclosures while the Obama administration finalizes their plans to solve the housing crisis. How does this affect the Ventura real estate market?

Take a look at these numbers from www.ForeclosureListService.com:

The first column is a Notice of Default (NOD) filing; this starts the foreclosure process. Generally, a homeowner has 3 months to resolve the issue before the second column kicks in – the Notice of Trustee Sale (NTS).

The NTS sets the time and place of the public foreclosure auction. If the property goes to sale, a Trustees Deed gets recorded, and it becomes an REO (real estate owned) property (unless a 3rd party bought it at the auction).

So what does all this mean? We see the dip last fall when Schwarzenegger tried to stem the tide, but it quickly came back. A lot of people are waiting to see what the Administration is going to do with their plan.

I’m holding my judgment till then.