Foreclosure Land
It’s late in the Summer and temperatures are hitting 100 degrees. A few people are setting up large beach umbrellas in a tall tree planter. Others are unfolding beach chairs. Someone is dragging a large cooler full of beverages and food for the day. It’s not an unemployed broker’s beach paradise, but the west steps of the County Courthouse in Norwalk – the largest property auction of our lifetime. On an average day $30 Million of Trust Deeds are sold. The daily street auction is unsanctioned by the government and there is no institutional oversight. Day after day, it is the lender’s clearinghouse of foreclosed mortgages where clever real estate buyers stuff their portfolios full of cheap property. It’s a feeding frenzy of real estate bargains that may never be repeated.