The Foreclosure Report

South Leads California In Defaults

The Associated Press has this report on California. "Mortgage defaults in California rose more than 67 percent during the second quarter, compared with the same period last year, the result of slowing annual home price gains, a real estate research firm said Wednesday."

"Lenders sent default notices to 20,752 California homeowners between April and June, a 67.2 percent hike from 12,408 in the same period last year and a 10.5 percent increase from the first three months of this year, DataQuick Information Systems said."

"The bulk of the default notices were sent to Southern California addresses, with homeowners in Los Angeles County receiving the largest number of notices. Twenty-three counties posted an increase of more than 50 percent in the number of notices during the quarter, with Riverside, Sacramento, Placer, Stanislaus and Sutter seeing their share of notices more than double."

"The number of mortgage defaults has been edging up since last fall, but the annual increase during the quarter was the fastest since at least 1992, when DataQuick began tracking defaults."

"The number of default notices bottomed in the third quarter of 2004 at 12,145, the firm said. The second quarter total was below the historical average of 32,762 filed each quarter over the 14-year period tracked by DataQuick."

"The number of mortgage default warnings sent to homeowners peaked in the first quarter of 1996 at 59,897, the firm said. The state's annual home appreciation rate peaked in the second quarter of 2004 at 22.8 percent and has steadily slowed since then."

"Roughly 7 percent of homeowners who receive default notices typically end up losing their homes to foreclosure, DataQuick said."

posted by Ben Jones @ 2:32 PM