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Under intense pressure to help more people stay in their homes, mortgage lenders canceled far more scheduled foreclosures in November than in the previous month, according to a report Tuesday.
A total of 10,469 scheduled foreclosures were canceled in November throughout California, up 20 percent from 8,741 in October, according to ForeclosureRadar, a Discovery Bay company that tracks foreclosure activity daily. In Santa Clara County, 337 were canceled, up from 269 in October.
The raw numbers may actually understate the scale of the increase, said Sean O’Toole, ForeclosureRadar’s founder. There were 416 cancellations each business day in October, and 581 each business day in November. That was an increase of 40 percent on an average daily basis because there were three fewer business days in November than October.
He attributed the surge in canceled foreclosures to recent efforts by lenders — strongly nudged by the Obama administration — to move more homeowners who have had their mortgages modified on a trial basis into permanently modified loans if they meet all criteria.
“It’s certainly a dramatic increase and it’s one we’ve been waiting for for months,” O’Toole said.
For most of 2009, there have been about 6,000 to 9,000 foreclosures canceled each month. Cancellations peaked in July at 10,818 statewide before falling, then rising again last month.
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