Second Mortgage Foreclosure
Slow home sales drive up mortgage defaults
Mortgage defaults jumped 53 percent in Sonoma County during the second quarter as the region's real estate slowdown took hold, making it harder for homeowners in financial trouble to sell their houses. While actual foreclosures in the county still remain below historic levels, the surge is the latest sign that the eight-year housing boom is giving way to a new market where homes take longer to sell and prices have leveled off.
The increase in default notices - the largest in four years - had been anticipated as the housing market cooled.
A year ago, foreclosure activity was near all-time lows as buyers continued to snap up homes and drive up prices, making it easy for owners to sell homes quickly.
"We don't see it as all that alarming, but it's a real important trend to watch," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with DataQuick Information Services, a La Jolla-based company that released the figures Wednesday.
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Sharp Spike In California Mortgage Defaults
A real estate research firm reports 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. Lenders sent default notices to nearly 21,000 California homeowners between April and June--for a 67percent hike from the same period last year and a ten and one-half percent increase from the first three months of this year. The information comes from La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems. The notices serve as an early indicator of possible foreclosures. 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.