Greg Knowles Santa Barbara Ca.

October in Santa Barbara County saw lenders take back 109 properties countywide. That number is significantly lower than August or September where there were 211 and 208 respectively. That has to be good news for someone.

There were 17 properties total for the communities of Santa Barbara, Goleta, Carpinteria, and Montecito. That is about a 20% decrease from the prior 2 months.

Lompoc saw only 20 or so properties in there area and Santa Maria continues to be the foreclosure captital in Santa Barbara County with 70ish properties going back to the bank in October.

The majority of the loan amounts appear to be below $500,000 with many in the $200,000 to $300,000 range. In the south county the number was split between homes and condominiums. In the northern part of the county there were very few condominiums.

Countrywide continued to have the most properties on the list, but they didn't overwhelm the list like they have in the previous months. Make sure to check out the map below to see more details for the properties and areas you are interested in.

Last night was nothing short of frightening for many people in Santa Barbara. If you weren't being evacuated you had the glow of flames and the smell of smoke to keep you company. It isn't over yet either. The winds are supposed to kick up a bit today, but hopefully the fire crews can keep the fire from spreading in to more neighborhoods.

The fire started about 5:45 last night and was small at first. I was playing my normal game of old man basketball in a gym about 1 mile from where it started. Being dumb old men we decided to keep playing even though someone came in to warn us about the fire. After all the fire was in another canyon, not the one where we were.

The wind was howling and the roof of the building was making some really strange noises. Why stop, we needed the exercise. So we played until about 7pm and probably would have played longer, but as our good luck would have it the electricity went out and we couldn't play in the dark. (My team was behind by 2 points)

So, we headed down the hill and it is a good thing we did, the further down the hill I drove the more I knew I probably should have left sooner. The traffic was awful coming down the narrow windy roads that blanket that area of our city. Once you got back in to town the traffic lights were all out and traffic accidents were a common occurrence with people just driving through the intersections because they didn't realize the lights were out.

I was sure glad to make it home and I am fortunate to live away from the hills and closer to the ocean.

Now I'm getting a good assessment of the area that is burning and the people that I know that have been affected and the stories aren't fun. I know many people that have lost their homes and or been evacuated. One of the best Christian Colleges in the country, Westmont has had structures burn and was evacuated. I personally know many people on the faculty as well as families who have students going to school there. If this College is not around it will be a huge loss.

Today in the office it seems a bit like a war zone. Helicopters flying over head, smoke in the air and emergency vehicles filling the streets.

I want to get back to seeing what I can do, but if you want information on the fire, here are some good sources;

Noozhawk (some of the photos here are amazing)

KEYT (our local news station that has very good info)

Edhat(a local blog, news site with interesting stories)

Sorry I didn't make this post a bit prettier. Keep the firefighters, and people in our community in your prayers until we see how this is going to play out.

It is that time again!!

The Foodbank of Santa Barbara County is working to feed thousands of hungry children, seniors, families and individuals during the 2008 holiday season. The activities began with a county wide Turkey Drive running from November 1 through the 25. The Foodbank needs at least 6,000 turkeys to be donated before Thanksgiving as well as monetary and non-perishable food donations.

The Foodbank is also holding its Holiday Food Drive, November 1 through December 31.

A Green Food Drive barrel has been placed in our Lawyers Title downtown office (1435 Anacapa). Every dollar, non-perishable can of food, and turkey makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the hungry throughout Santa Barbara County.

Besides the traditional barrels you can also go to the website made available to Lawyers Title, and purchase food through the virtual food drive making it even easier to donate food and funds.

If you purchase food on the website your money goes much further as the Food Bank can buy food at their cost instead of retail.

Please stop by when you can and bring your non-perishables to fill our barrel, or better yet donate online and help feed one of the many families who are in need this holiday season!

Lawyers Title Company is proud to support our local Foodbank. We thank you for your help and support. Please help us make this the best food drive possible!

I don't know about anybody else, but I'm getting pretty dizzy watching the stock market go up 400 points one minute and then be down 200 points the next. It has been a very wild ride to say the least if you are paying attention there.

The Santa Barbara County real estate market hasn't been so up and down. It has been pretty consistent for the most part.

With respects to foreclosures and some of the indicators I watch to tell me whether they are slowing or not, the trend is certainly slowing.

The most significant number in September was the number of notice of defaults the county reported recording. There were only 112 as compared to 269 in August. I am certain that some of the legislation requiring lenders to get in touch with borrowers before recording these notices is having an affect on how many are being recorded, but I also think they will be working out the terms of some borrowers loans which again will cause the default rate to slow down.

The number of trustees deeds has also declined in a large way from 217 in August to 146 in September. More obviously good news for the foreclosure market.

The last 2 pieces of the equation are also spelling relief for the foreclosure market. The number of loans that are adjusting this month is 228 which is the peak for the year. I have data out to January 2009 and that number is 115. This tells me less borrowers are going to feel stuck in the adjustable loans they have.

The final part of the foreclosure equation in my mind is how many of these foreclosures are selling? This is important since that inventory needs to be bought up before we are going to see prices start to really stabilize and climb. In Santa Barbara County there were 81 of those properties purchased in September. This number has continually increased since January of this year showing me that the price point is being reached.

Foreclosures aren't going away any time soon, but they are selling and they are becoming less of an impact on our residential markets.

It isn't even worth trying to figure out who was in 2nd. With 211 properties going back to their respective lenders as REO's and Countrywide with 54 (if I counted correctly) the rest of the pack was left in the dust.

I did see the usual suspects though, Wells Fargo, WAMU, Chase etc.....

One field of information I didn't remember seeing in the past was the information on surnames. I don't know what this really has to do with anything, but 107 of the 211 properties had been owned by people with hispanic surnames.

21 of the 211 were in the Santa Barbara, Goleta, Montecito, and Carpinteria areas. If memory serves me correctly, that is 1 less than what occurred in July. So, 180 of the properties on the list are from the Santa Maria, Lompoc, & Santa Ynez Valley.