Unencumbered by the thought process!

Lenders recovered almost 60 percent of the loan value for properties that were foreclosed in 2009, according to an analysis by Real Capital Analytics.

In a report released Thursday, the New York firm said lenders recovered $1.9 billion on 145 defaulted commercial mortgages totaling $3.2 billion.

In an indication that more is yet to come, Dan Fasulo, managing director for Real Capital, wrote in an e-mail, “For the entire U.S. we have only been able to track 145 recovery rates — that’s how little of the distress has been cleaned up until now.”

How much a lender was able to recover in a foreclosure depended on location, type of asset and, most of all, the purpose of the loan. The report said that loans on partially completed developments recover less than a third — 32 percent — of the value.

The best recovery rates occurred in the West and Northwest, where rates for acquisition and refinancing loans were 76 percent and 78 percent, respectively. The Los Angeles metro area tops the list of Real Capital’s 11 regions with a 70-plus percent recovery rate. Detroit and Tampa, Fla., are at the bottom with a recovery rate of 45 percent.

The San Francisco metro area, which includes Silicon Valley, is third with a recovery rate of close to 70 percent.

Mortgages on retail properties have the highest recovery rates, but Real Capital said the sector has had few resolutions compared with the “huge amount” of properties in default.

After years of falling values and a massive sell-off of foreclosed homes in the Sacramento region, it's easier now to believe real estate agents when they say the market has bottomed out.

But wait. That's the lower end, houses priced at roughly $300,000 and under, the zone of repos and bidding wars between investors and first-time buyers.

The higher end of the Sacramento-area market – say anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million or more – still has ample room to fall unless this economy surprisingly rebounds. So owners are whacking harder now on initial asking prices.

You can see that in new statistics from home search firm Trulia.com. The company says homeowners with listings in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo County have collectively reduced asking prices by $156 million since putting out for-sale signs.

About 40 percent of that markdown is from homes priced at $1 million or more. On average, these richest owners have cut their prices by $271,000 in El Dorado County, and $334,000 in Placer County.

Up in the real estate heights, it remains more expensive for buyers to get financing. The move-up buyer pool is smaller than ever as thousands at the lower- and mid-market have seen their equity shredded.

Those who can buy at higher prices are savvy and watching for capitulation, meaning "price reductions and opportunity," said Bob Bronswick, head of Coldwell Banker's residential brokerage for the Sacramento and Lake Tahoe region. For owners, it's all about what Bronswick and others in the trade call "getting a little more realistic."

Bronswick said the higher end is a little stronger than a year ago. Yet numbers from the Sacramento Association of Realtors show just 2.9 percent of October's buyers paid $500,000 or more in Sacramento County and West Sacramento. At today's pace, it would take two years to sell the houses in SAR's territory priced at $650,000 or more, said association President Charlene Singley. The market as a whole has a much smaller inventory of unsold homes – just 3.2 months worth.

This story is repeated all over California. There's a market for it still," Bronswick said of higher-end homes. "But it's a little bit softer." In a business where no one likes to be negative, and inside an economy that hasn't got its act together yet, that's probably putting it – well, softly.

By Jim Wasserman @ Sacbee.com