A report from The Signal in California. "The sales inventory of homes and condominiums for the Santa Clarita Valley area rose for the eighth consecutive month as sales dropped and prices increased, the Southland Regional Association of Realtors recently announced. The 550 active listings at the end of the month were up 58.5 percent from a year ago, representing the eighth consecutive month-to-month increase in inventory."

"Amanda Etchevery, chair of the Santa Clarita Division of the association added that the last time the supply was this high was in February 2012. In January, the association helped negotiate 103 single-family closed escrows and 51 condominium transactions, which were down 30 percent and 7 percent. Those totals came close to the record lows of 99 home sales and 31 condo sales. Both records were set in January 2008."

"'It’s good to see homeowners listing more properties in a market that desperately needs housing,' said Tim Johnson, the association’s chief executive officer. 'Now, the challenge for Realtors will be to convince those sellers that the market is in transition and yesterday’s prices may meet resistance today.'"

"The median price of homes sold last month came in at $587,000, the association reported. That was up 2.1 percent from January 2018, but down 2.2 percent from the December median price of $600,000."

From L.A. Taco. "Silvia Venegas grew up in Van Nuys. Shecalls herself a 'typical Latina Valley girl.t And now’s she in a fight the likes of which Los Angeles hasn’t seen since the dark days of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. It’s a five-year-long battle involving three multi-billion-dollar corporations, alleged illegal lender maneuvering, and one family stuck in the middle during the city’s latest housing crisis."

"She’s up against power players in a giant real estate machine, and beat them to a standstill – at least for now. In Venegas’s case, Ocwen foreclosed more than five years ago and then sold it to a hedge fund named Colony Capital, who then turned around and sold it off to another billion-dollar company called Invitation Homes. She’s been fighting the companies ever since."

"'For five years I have been living in limbo. For five years I have been living in fear. For five years I have been living in pain — every single year, especially when it comes down to Christmas time, or to my children’s birthdays,' Venegas told L.A. Taco, wiping tears from her eyes. 'They are so heartless. They won’t even talk to me, and take into consideration that I was the one wronged. I wasn’t the one that did anything wrong.'"

"How that happened starts in 2010, when Silvia’s suffered from a ruptured hernia. She couldn’t work. In 2011, she filed paperwork with Ocwen Loan Servicing for a loan modification of her mortgage of $2,300 a month."

"She obtained a loan forbearance agreement until 2013. She was applying for another loan modification agreement, when the company foreclosed on her, according to Philip E Koebel, her former attorney. In the years, since Ocwen initially foreclosed on her home, Silvia has had to file chapter 13 bankruptcy, fight a losing battle to regain title of her home, and fend off forced eviction suits against her."

"'She has fought five and a quarter years longer than what’s supposed to have happened,' said Koebel. 'I told her many times that she needed to settle and give up. Ocwen made this dual tracking mistake, but you can’t sue to recover the property. You can only sue to recover damages.'"