Foreclosure Judicial Amount higher than Property Value?

[Stephen Cooley]

I'm trying to get my head around a foreclosure auction where the judgement amount is higher than the value of the property and I'm looking forward to reading your responses.

The County I live in conducts online actions on foreclosed properties.  In most of the online listings, the Judicial Judgement Amount is higher than the value of the property.  The property value is based on current listings and recent sales for the neighborhood the property is located in.  I've been doing due diligence and this situation applies to many of the foreclosure listings.

So I'm wondering how an auction in this scenario works out.  I doubt the bid will end up being higher than the property value and therefore somewhere below the judgement amount, right?  So what happens post auction?   Will the auction winner be responsible for the difference between the bid and judgement amount?  Why would anyone bid on the property if this was the case?  Is this the process the banks use to clear bad debt and the foreclosure is just a legal formality where a bid isn't really expected?