homesmillbrae.com » Backlog

Next Boom? ‘Spec’ Homes Are Back

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 05:52:40 +0000

“We’ve seen the listings in the market drop dramatically. It’s been way, way down for months and months and months. The wave of foreclosures hasn’t come to us in a way that impacts the market. Investors are coming in and buying up inventory,” said Paul, who sees these factors as solid arguments for spec building.

(Read More: The Million-Dollar Home Challenge)

Mid-Atlantic, a small Maryland builder with six communities, now has 10 percent of its backlog in spec homes, and they are not alone. The big public builders are heading back to spec as well.

“I think the biggest competitive advantage builders have right now is that they have product, and with existing inventory so low they need to take advantage of the fact that they actually have something to sell,” explained Megan McGrath, a home building analyst at MKM Partners. “When you’re starting to think about the first-time buyer coming back into the market, you may want to increase your spec inventory a little.”

(Read More: Housing “Stuck” Due to Short Supply)

Supplies of homes for sale are down across the nation. Inventory in March fell 17 percent from a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors. Listings usually rise dramatically in the spring, but they have not kept pace with historical averages.

In its earnings release Monday Meritage Homes CEO Stephen J. Hilton noted, “Housing demand is greater than the supply of homes available for sale in many of the areas where we operate, causing home prices to increase.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100669083

With Home Listings Low, ‘Spec’ Building Is Back

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 23:19:16 +0000

(Read More: The Million-Dollar Home Challenge)

Mid-Atlantic, a small Maryland builder with six communities, now has 10 percent of its backlog in spec homes, and they are not alone. The big public builders are heading back to spec as well.

(Read More: Housing “Stuck” Due to Short Supply)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100669083

Housing Recovery Leaves Some Behind

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:11:42 +0000

To add to the delays, now some non-judicial states are seeing a big jump in backlogs due to new state laws that while attempting to safeguard borrowers, are delaying the foreclosure process in general.

Nevada instituted a new law criminalizing faulty foreclosures. Banks are taking a big breather there, resulting in the foreclosure backlog doubling in the last 8 months. Massachusetts, a non-judicial state, saw a similar jump after new state foreclosure legislation, and California’s Homeowner Bill of Rights, modeled on Nevada’s law, went into effect in January 2013, so it too will likely see a slowdown in the clearing of distressed loans.

It all brings into question the recent jump in home values, which is being caused by a huge drop in supply of distressed homes.

(Read More: Taking The Real Estate Recovery Local)

Sale prices of homes jumped nearly 10 percent in January, according to CoreLogic. Even with the price surge, inventories continue to drop dramatically across the nation, perhaps because would-be sellers want to see just how high prices will go before testing the waters.

Housing bulls seem unconcerned about the so-called “shadow inventory” of distressed properties, but perhaps they should be. Of the loans that were in foreclosure in January 2012, 42 percent still are, according to LPS. Just 33 percent moved to bank repossession or other forms of liquidation.

In addition, while new mortgage delinquencies are falling in non-judicial states, they are increasing almost 20 percent in judicial states, according to Lender Processing Services.

“The line that we would draw goes through home prices,” Blecher speculated. “If those back logs are having any impact on home prices that could drive new problem loans as well.”

(Read More: Pending Home Sales Soar Despite Rough Winter)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100533234

Foreclosure Deals: 2013′s Best and Worst

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:23:08 +0000

Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit and San Diego all saw a drop in foreclosure activity. But the numbers went the opposite direction in Tampa, Miami, Baltimore, Chicago and New York.

“Markets with increasing foreclosure activity in 2012 took the first step in finally purging delayed distress left over from the bursting housing bubble,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Meanwhile, the underlying fundamentals in many of those markets are slowly improving, making it an opportune time to absorb additional foreclosure inventory this year — and that is particularly good news for buyers and investors hungry for more inventory to purchase in those markets.”

(Read More: Link Between Credit and Mortgages: Not What You Think)

RealtyTrac ranked the top markets for investors to set their sights in 2013, based on months’ supply of foreclosure inventory, percentage of foreclosure sales, the foreclosure discount and the percentage increase in foreclosure activity in 2012. Five of the top ten are in Florida, including Palm Bay, Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando. Florida requires a judge in the foreclosure process and therefore has an extremely large backlog.

(Read More: Feds’ ‘Fixer-Upper’ Loan Helps Tidy Up Foreclosures)

New York, another judicial state, fills 4 of the top ten spots, with Rochester, Albany and the New York City area leading. Chicago rounds out the roster.

The worst markets to look for foreclosures are largely out West, where the foreclosure crisis hit first and where investors have already bought so many properties that they are now fighting for what is left. Low supplies have led to bidding wars in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Jose, CA and even Portland, OR.

(Read More: Best US Housing Markets for Buyers and Sellers)

It is truly a tale of east versus west, just as it was at the start of the foreclosure crisis with the west faring far worse than the rest of the nation. Now it is just the opposite, as demand for distressed properties continues to increase and supply determines the best bargain destinations.

(Read More: Facing Foreclosure? Don’t Just Sit There—Act Now)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100423428

US Home Prices Surge Despite Distress

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 02:06:35 +0000

Just six states, Delaware, Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Alabama saw annual price depreciation. New Jersey still has a huge backlog of distressed properties, as does Illinois. Arizona, Nevada and California are seeing big home price gains, as investors there continue to inhale properties to take advantage of the very lucrative rental market. Still, even excluding distressed sales, Nevada saw a 12 percent jump in home prices.

(Read More: When Banks Walk Away, Homeowners Don’t Always Win)

There are, however, still looming headwinds to home prices, as banks ramp up foreclosures especially in states that require these cases to go before a judge. That new inventory could slow price gains in those states. Inventory, or lack thereof, is the primary driver of much of these gains. There were just 2.03 million homes for sale in November, according to the National Association of Realtors, a 23 percent drop from November of 2011 and the lowest supply since September of 2005.

Some are concerned that low inventory and not increased demand is juicing prices faster than is healthy for the housing recovery. If prices start to outpace earnings and employment growth, and then more properties hit the market this Spring, these gains could take a U-turn.

(Read More: One Overlooked Fact About the Housing Recovery)

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100380754

Why Aren’t Candidates Talking More About Housing?

Fri, 31 Aug 2012 09:15:19 +0000

There has been plenty of political talk about the economy this week, but precious few words about one of the biggest drags on the economy: housing.

Despite recent signs that the housing market is improving, it is far from healthy.

Home prices are still down 31 percent from their 2006 peak according to the latest SP/Case-Shiller home price report, and nearly 12 percent of all mortgages are either delinquent or in the foreclosure process, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. (Read More: How Investors Are Skewing Home Price Recovery.)

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said that government should stay out of the housing market and let it correct on its own. Wednesday night, his running mate, Paul Ryan said President Obama didn’t do enough to “correct” the housing crisis, but offered no plan of his own. (Read More: CNBC Special Report: Your Money, Your Vote.)

You would think they would hit housing harder, given that many of the nation’s swing states also have the dubious distinction of holding the highest foreclosure rates.

Take Florida. It had the third highest foreclosure rate in the nation in July, according to RealtyTrac, and that’s up from the sixth highest just in June.

The numbers there are rising because of a huge backlog of delinquent loans stuck in a judicial foreclosure pipeline. Now that the courts are starting to move again, the foreclosures are coming home to roost.

In addition, 46 percent of Florida borrowers owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth, according to CoreLogic. That’s twice the national number.

Nevada, another key swing state which President Obama recently visited to push his refinance plan, has the sixth highest foreclosure rate. Sixty-three percent of borrowers there are underwater.

The government’s Home Affordable Refinance Program, which lets underwater borrowers with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages obtain lower interest rates, refinanced 422,969 loans in the first half of this year, more than all of the HARP refinances last year, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

That is largely due to changes in the plan, one of which lifted the cap on how far underwater a borrower could be. More than two-thirds of borrowers in Nevada refinanced through HARP. (Read More: ‘Wind Down’ of Fannie, Freddie: ‘Positive for Housing’?)

Michigan and Ohio also rank in the top ten highest foreclosure rates, and their underwater borrower rate is also well above the national average. Neither Governor Romney nor President Obama have targeted any housing policy action at either of these states of late.

While many have criticized the Obama administration’s housing bailout, calling it too little and too complicated, the Romney camp has offered nothing other than to criticize the president’s home buyer tax credit that ended in 2010.

Last year, when asked about his plan to fix housing, Romney said, “Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process, let it run its course and hit the bottom.” Later he suggested that the housing market was unlikely to “cure” itself.

One thing working in both sides’ favor is that those hardest hit by the housing crash likely won’t vote. You would think that homeowners in trouble would want to make their voices heard, but the opposite is the case. (Read More: Cautious Moves on Foreclosures Haunting Obama.)

Not only are Americans who lost their homes to foreclosure less likely to vote, but those in neighborhoods impacted by foreclosure are also less likely to vote than those in more stable communities, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside.

“Neighborhoods affect the political participation of their residents,” the scholars wrote. “Other things being equal, individuals are more likely to vote when they live in places where neighbors vigorously participate in politics, while individuals are less likely to vote when their neighbors are less civically active. Given that foreclosure creates instability in communities, areas that experience higher levels of foreclosure have lower voter turnout.”

There is also a large body of evidence that homeowners are more likely to vote than renters, and that is true in high and low income neighborhoods alike. Given that more Americans are now renting, we could see a big drop in overall voter turnout. (Read More: As Housing Recovers, Will Apartment Boom End?)

Perhaps that is why housing, one of the biggest issues affecting Americans today, is getting almost no voice in the political rhetoric.

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48844717?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

New Crop of Foreclosures Is Coming

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 05:00:43 +0000

While fewer Americans are falling behind on their mortgage payments, the huge backlog of already delinquent mortgages is finally making its way through the banking system to foreclosure.

Total foreclosure activity rose in the first half of this year from the previous six months, according to online foreclosure sale site RealtyTrac, driven by a jump in new foreclosure actions by lenders.

“Those foreclosure starts are welcome news for prospective buyers and real estate brokers in many local markets where a shortage of aggressively priced inventory has been holding up sales activity. Markets with increasing foreclosure starts will likely see more distressed inventory for sale in the form of short sales and bank-owned properties in the second half of the year,” said Brandon Moore, CEO of RealtyTrac.

More than half of the 212 metropolitan areas RealtyTrac surveys saw increases in foreclosure starts, and of the top ten foreclosure rates in the nation, five of them were in California. Stockton still holds the dubious distinction of the nation’s highest metro foreclosure rate, at more than three times the national average. Despite their high ranking, however, all of the California metros in the top ten actually saw decreasing foreclosure activity overall. In fact, Atlanta was the only metro area with a top ten foreclosure rate to see increasing foreclosure activity in the first half of this year.

While many of the previously hard-hit markets are seeing declines in foreclosures, other cities are seeing big gains. Foreclosure activity increased more than 20 percent from second half of 2011 in Tampa (47 percent), Philadelphia (30 percent), Chicago (28 percent), New York (26 percent), and Baltimore (21 percent).

Foreclosure activity dropped the most in Seattle, WA. Other cities where activity dropped more than 10 percent from the second half of 2011 were San Francisco, Detroit, Los Angeles and Boston.

New foreclosures, known as “starts,” rose in more than 60 percent of metro markets. RealtyTrac ranked the best markets for investing, by looking at where sales prices are increasing but foreclosure discounts are still at 15 percent or higher. Durham, NC, Boston, MA, Cleveland, OH and Phoenix, AZ all made the top ten.

Questions? Comments? And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/48324812?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

San Francisco Bay Area Home Sales Reach Five-Year High for March

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:47:30 +0000

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay
Area reached the highest level for the month of March in five
years as an improving economy and low interest rates lured
buyers, according to DataQuick.

A total of 7,694 houses and condominiums sold last month in
the nine-county region, up 35 percent from February and 9.1
percent from March 2011, the San Diego-based data seller said
today in a statement. March sales were last higher in 2007, when
they reached 8,317. Condo resales totaled 1,734, the most for
any month since August 2006.

“While the changes we’re seeing are incremental, they’re
incremental in a positive direction,” DataQuick President John Walsh said in the statement. A backlog of distressed properties
and tight mortgage credit are “two of the big issues” still
holding back the market, he said.

The Bay Area median price last month was $358,000, up 10
percent from February and down 0.6 percent from March 2011.
Prices have dropped on a year-over-year basis every month since
October 2010, with last month’s decline being the smallest.

Prices in San Francisco County were unchanged from a year
earlier at a median $650,000. In Marin County, the median fell
almost 16 percent to $565,000.

Eight of the region’s nine counties had sales gains from a
year earlier, led by Solano with a 13 percent advance.
Transactions rose 11 percent in San Francisco and 7 percent in
Santa Clara. In Napa, the only county to have a decrease, sales
fell 0.8 percent.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Levy in San Francisco at
dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-19/san-francisco-bay-area-home-sales-reach-five-year-high-for-march.html

Notices of default up, foreclosures down in third quarter

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:28:45 +0000

The number of Napa County homes entering the foreclosure process
jumped 18.5 percent in the third quarter compared to the same
quarter in 2010, according to DataQuick, a real estate information
service.

A total of 263 notices of default were filed for Napa County
homes or condos in the third quarter, compared to 222 in the same
period the year before. It was the largest percentage increase in
nine Bay Area counties.

However, the number of Napa County homes or condos completing
foreclosure dropped 13 percent, from 131 to 114, quarter over
quarter.

“Napa County is not going down the tubes,” Susan Archer,
president of the North Bay Association of Realtors (NORBAR),
said.

Archer attributed the notice of default increase to a backlog of
distressed homes that banks are still processing.

Typically, a notice of default is filed after a homeowner is 90
days delinquent. But some homeowners might have stopped making
payments six to nine months ago — or more — and only just recently
received a notice, she said.

Banks haven’t been able to process all the distressed properties
effectively, Archer explained. “Now they’re moving forward, causing
numbers to increase.

“The (notice of default) jump is probably primarily from Bank of
America getting through of all these issues they’ve inherited from
Countrywide,” said Joe Brasil with Coldwell Banker Brokers of the
Valley. Bank of America purchased subprime mortgage lender
Countrywide Financial in 2008.

“They’ve done a significant release in the last quarter,” he
noted.

According to DataQuick, the most active beneficiaries statewide
in the foreclosure process last quarter were Bank of America
(14,325), Bank of New York (11,052), and Wells Fargo (9,740).

“I also think notices of default don’t really reflect what’s
happening in the marketplace,” Brasil said. Distressed homeowners
may stave off foreclosure using some kind of work-out plan with the
bank or short sale, for example. Or, “They can pull themselves out
of foreclosure entirely.”

“People used to want to call it ‘shadow inventory,’ but I think
banks have too much on their plate to process,” Julie Larsen of
Pacific Union International said. “Short sales are difficult,”
requiring multiple contacts with banks, lenders and other financial
institutions.

Another reason banks are taking longer to process foreclosures
is that it takes time to evaluate the reasons for each individual
home foreclosure, she said. Some people have lost jobs and can’t
afford the mortgage payment. Others can make the payments but are
underwater and simply want to walk away from the home and start
over.

“The banks (are) trying to muddle through that,” Larsen
said.

Statewide, after dropping to a three-year low in the second
quarter of this year, the number of California homeowners being
pulled into the foreclosure process snapped back to prior levels
over the last three months, DataQuick reported.

A total of 71,275 notices of default were recorded at county
recorders’ offices during the third quarter. That was up 25.9
percent from 56,633 for the prior three months, and down 14.4
percent from 83,261 in third-quarter 2010, according to
DataQuick.

Last quarter’s NODs, which mark the first step in the formal
foreclosure process, jumped back to levels seen earlier this year
and late last year. Notices peaked in first quarter of 2009 at
135,431.

“Figuring out what’s actually going on when it comes to
foreclosures can be a logistical nightmare,” said John Walsh,
DataQuick president. “In each case there are at least six or seven
different legal entities contending with each other, each with a
different agenda and timeline: The original lender, the homeowner,
the current owner or owners of the loan, the servicing institution,
the outfit doing the actual foreclosing, and the county recorder’s
office.

“The way it looks right now, it’s reasonable to expect default
filings to run at a somewhat higher level than we saw earlier this
year,” Walsh added. “Obviously, some lenders and loan servicers
have begun to plow through their backlogs of delinquent loans more
aggressively.”

Of the state’s larger counties, mortgages were least likely to
go into default in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The
probability was highest in Sacramento, Madera and Stanislaus
counties.

Trustees Deeds recorded statewide, or the actual loss of a home
to foreclosure, totaled 38,895 during the third quarter. That was
down 8.4 percent from the prior quarter, and down 14.3 percent year
over year. The all-time peak was 79,511 in third-quarter 2008. The
state’s all-time low was 637 in the second quarter of 2005,
DataQuick reported.

There are 8.7 million houses and condos in the state.

Foreclosure resales accounted for 34.2 percent of all California
resale activity last quarter. Short sales — transactions where the
sale price fell short of what was owed on the property — made up an
estimated 17.8 percent of statewide resale activity last
quarter.

At formal foreclosure auctions held statewide last quarter, an
estimated 29.7 percent of the foreclosed properties were bought by
investors or others who don’t appear to be lender or government
entities. That was up from an estimated 28.3 percent the previous
quarter and up from 22.7 percent a year earlier, according to
DataQuick.

Article source: http://napavalleyregister.com/business/notices-of-default-up-foreclosures-down-in-third-quarter/article_aaf39192-fe0c-11e0-b39d-001cc4c03286.html

Homicide backlog could grow with drastic cuts to courtroom budgets

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:08:21 +0000

Dozens of accused murderers languish in San Francisco jails as judges struggle to find open courtrooms, prosecutors labor under heavy caseloads and defense attorneys search for witnesses who might prove their client’s innocence.

Meanwhile, memories fade, cases grow years old and victims’ families lose hope for justice.

At a time of budget cuts to the superior court system, the District Attorney’s Office has 11 pending murder cases that are 4 years old and another three cases in which at least seven years have passed since charges were filed.

District Attorney George Gascón says he has made speeding up the prosecution of homicide cases a priority of his administration.

“You cannot do a homicide [prosecution] overnight obviously, but … assuming that there are no unusual circumstances in that case, two or three years should be a more than reasonable time for a homicide to be tried,” Gascón said.

That’s the average timetable, officials in several Bay Area district attorney’s offices agree, given the amount of investigation often required in homicide cases and procedural issues in the court system.

“Two years is sort of our target here, and [then] we start pressing for a trial,” San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. “If it goes beyond that, the cases begin to become stale.”

Prosecutor Braden Woods, who heads the criminal division of the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, described delays as “the ultimate open wound or sore” for family members of murder victims. While a conviction can never bring the victim back, “To have a case drag on for years, it’s like a constant source of irritation for a family,” he said.

Sheriff Michael Hennessey, who oversees the county jails, agrees.

“There’s the whole issue of justice itself,” Hennessey said. “What does it say to the families of a murdered person, or witnesses, neighbors … what does it say to them about the fact that it’s taken five, six or seven years and this case still hasn’t been resolved? It casts a bad light on the justice system.”

San Francisco jails are expected to fill up in the coming year with inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes who are being transferred from state prisons beginning Oct. 1.

“It frustrates me,” Hennessey said. “When you have a high-security person who’s in custody for seven years, they’re tying up this very valuable jail real estate.”

High-security prisoners pose a risk to others and themselves, Hennessey said. “Because you have to put them in with other high-security prisoners, and that tends to lead to bad things happening every once and a while,” he said.

Hundreds of felony cases await trial at any given time in San Francisco, while there are only seven felony-trial courtrooms in which to squeeze them.

The court is “conscientiously trying to move these older cases, in particular homicides,” Superior Court spokeswoman Ann Donlan said. But she acknowledged “it can take some time to accomplish that.”

The judge who assigns cases to court must also take into account defendants’ constitutional right to a speedy trial and attorneys’ schedules and lack of readiness, Donlan said.

Even when murder suspects are known to police and prosecutors, there can be delays, such as in the shooting death in August of German tourist Mechthild Schröer, who was caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout near Union Square while visiting The City with her husband. Arrests were finally made in May.

“Witness cooperation, witnesses coming forward, is a huge struggle when it comes to the prosecution of murder cases,” Woods said.

For instance, the trial of the suspect in 2008’s triple murder of Tony, Michael and Matthew Bologna has been delayed while prosecutors await testimony from several possible witnesses who also are testifying in the ongoing trial of seven alleged members of the violent gang MS-13.

Understaffing in the homicide unit also contributes to the backlog, Woods said. Right now, seven prosecutors each handle between 10 and 11 murder cases, involving 14 to 15 defendants, he said.

“It’s a bad practice,” Woods said.

Gascón had secured funding in this year’s budget to add another homicide prosecutor this fall, Woods said.

By contrast, Wagstaffe said San Mateo County’s two full-time homicide prosecutors are handling 15 of the county’s 17 pending murder cases, eight or fewer cases each. San Mateo County’s murder caseload only goes back to 2008, he said, although one 1999 case is awaiting retrial.

Wagstaffe said courtroom availability is not an issue in his county, although he noted that it doesn’t face the same amount of crime as San Francisco.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys often claim that the other side is delaying a case by either withholding evidence or filing endless motions. However, one defense attorney said caution is warranted in murder cases.

“When people are looking at spending the rest of their life in jail, there’s a premium on making sure the case is thoroughly investigated and litigated,” said Bob Dunlap, manager of the felony unit for the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office.

Dunlap said his office is defending nearly half of the pending homicide cases, and almost all of them are getting to trial within two to three years.

“Everyone involved, they really are doing the best they can,” Dunlap said. “If there were more courtrooms available, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Dunlap said the sometimes-frosty relationship between his office and the District Attorney’s Office has improved since Gascón was appointed in January.

“And I do think part of it is attributable to Gascón,” Dunlap said. “There have been more and more fruitful discussions over resolving homicide cases since he’s begun.”

Such discussions “used to be nonexistent, or rare” under former District Attorney Kamala Harris, Dunlap said.

aburack@sfexaminer.com

Some cold cases move ahead, while others remain stalled

Five recent convictions in the past four months — four for murder and one for voluntary manslaughter — have helped ease the homicide backlog in the District Attorney’s Office, but several old cases remain.

One of the oldest is the 1981 murder of 24-year-old Annie Barcelon. On Nov. 26 of that year, she and her roommate were returning from a Thanksgiving party to their Park Merced home. Barcelon let her roommate out of the car and went to park the vehicle, but never returned. Her body was found the next day under a stairway in the basement of their building. She was found to have been raped and strangled.

The cold case was charged in 2004 after a DNA hit linked an Oregon prison inmate incarcerated on a separate sexual assault case, Lance Ford, to Barcelon’s slaying. Ford, now 55, is finally set to go to trial in October.

In another cold case that went to trial this year, a jury in May found Dwight Culton, 62, guilty of first-degree murder in the 1984 killing of 43-year-old Joan Baldwin at an auto body shop just blocks away from the Hall of Justice. A DNA hit in that case was made in 2006.

“The fact that we were able to solve a 1984 case is fantastic, but we filed it in ’06 and we just got a verdict in 2011,” prosecutor Braden Woods said. “That’s a case that’s been kicking around for way too long.”

Woods said he also was frustrated with the progress of the case of Napoleon Brown, 39, accused of murder in the 2000 death of a 25-year-old woman, Lenties White, who had been carjacked by suspects fleeing a Marina robbery. The suspects pushed her out of her car on the Golden Gate Bridge, and she was fatally struck by another driver.

Although Brown was convicted of first-degree murder, robbery and carjacking in 2005, a judge later found the defense attorney had been ineffective and granted a new trial on the murder charge.

Woods said prosecutors wanted to retry Brown immediately, but the defense was able to postpone the trial while Brown appealed his robbery conviction. That conviction was upheld in 2009.

“So now we’ve been trying to move the case forward,” Woods said.

Brown returns to court for a hearing this month.

Gathering dust

San Francisco’s oldest murder cases still awaiting trial:

Napoleon Brown: Charged in 2001 with the 2000 murder of Lenties White, 25, who was pushed from a carjacked vehicle and fatally struck by another car; hearing Aug. 30, case still awaiting retrial or possible settlement.

Lance Ford: Charged in 2004 with the 1981 rape and strangulation murder of Annie Barcelon, 24; trial scheduled to begin in October.

Thomas Hanley and Ivan Gonzalez: Charged in 2004 with the 2004 stabbing murder of Hanley’s adoptive mother, Anne Outin, 66; hearing Friday, trial date not yet set.

Awaiting trial

Pending murder cases charged in Bay Area:

San Francisco: 75 cases involving 100 defendants since 2001

Alameda County: 117 cases involving 153 defendants since 2006

San Mateo County: 17 cases involving 24 defendants since 2008

Santa Clara County: 83 cases involving 126 defendants

Marin County: Seven cases since 2009

Source: District attorney’s offices

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/crime/2011/08/homicide-backlog-could-grow-drastic-cuts-courtroom-budgets