Lenders on California properties are averaging 367 days from the first late payment and a foreclosure referral, as reported by The Big Picture. This is the time before the notice of default is recorded.
The standard used to be three months of late payments before the lender referred the loan to the foreclosure department. Is this solely due to the volume of properties in default, and under staffing by servicers & lenders? I suspect the volume of real estate owned by lenders to be a factor for another reason. Given the flood of foreclosed properties for sale, to pick up the pace would only place more properties on the market and drive properties down. Meanwhile, efforts at loan modification while the loan is in default generates some cash to the lender.