DQNews Archived Article

California Foreclosures Down

by Real Estate Analyst John Karevoll
May, 1997

La Jolla, CA.— The number of California homeowners going into foreclosure declined again in April, with Southern California logging in the steepest drop, a real estate information service reported.

Lenders filed 11,899 Notices of Default on houses and condos last month. That was down 2.3 percent from 12,182 for the month before and down 18.2 percent from 14,540 for April of last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

A Notice of Default is the first step of the formal foreclosure process. California's year-over-year drop was the fifth in a row. The drop was due in part to unusually high numbers a year ago when lending institutions tightened foreclosure policies.

"This foreclosure phenomenon is going to be with us for a while, but at declining levels. Now that prices have started to go up in Southern California we expect foreclosures to drop by about a third by the end of the year," said Mike Ela, DataQuick president.

A total of 7,479 Southern California homes went into foreclosure last month, down 25.9 percent from 10,088 a year ago. Orange County experienced a 35.2 percent drop while Riverside County had a more modest 5.2 percent decline.

Bay Area foreclosure activity, which was never the nasty problem it was in the rest of the state, dropped 12.7 percent from 2,129 a year ago to 1,859 last month.

Foreclosure activity is still on the rise in rural areas. In the Central Valley, from Sacramento to Kern counties, a total of 2,293 Notices of Default were recorded, up 14.1 percent from 2,010 for April last year.

DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide, and provides information to consumers, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts.

Homeowners are most often six to eight months behind on their mortgage payments when the bank starts foreclosure proceedings. From beginning to end, the formal foreclosure process can take as little as four months, although today it averages over seven months.

Source: DataQuick Information Systems

Media Inquiries: John Karevoll (909)867-9534

Copyright © 1997 DataQuick Information Systems.
All rights reserved.

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