Are Lenders Deliberately Stalling on Foreclosures?

I was enjoying a nice lunch with some friendly title company representatives and we were talking about foreclosure numbers and the massive build-up of the "NOD [Notice of Default] list" that title companies prepare for lenders each and every week.  A few years ago the "NOD list" in Orange County was maybe one or two homes  a week, and sometimes you wouldn't see a new NOD listing for a month.  No longer the case - the NOD list has been growing as foreclosures have doubled year-over-year. As we were talking about the NOD list we started trading some stories about people we know that are in foreclosure (and there are a lot of folks in the mortgage and real estate industries who drank the kool aid and bought at the top - who now can't make their house payment) who are going on 6