Foreclosures continue to drop in county Large gains in annual home price appreciation have continued to help keep the number of foreclosures in San Diego County at pre-Great Recession levels. In February, banks repossessed 141 properties in the county, a slight decline from January and down 44 percent from the 252 foreclosures in February 2013, real estate tracker DataQuick reported Tuesday. Last month’s number of foreclosures was also the lowest for a February since 2006, when 40 properties were taken back by banks during the housing bubble that led to the recession. It was also a major improvement from the 1,316 foreclosures in the county in February 2008, during the middle of the economic downturn. “The whole thing with foreclosures is that they occur when there’s no equity,” said Mark Goldman, a loan officer and real estate lecturer at San Diego State University. “They’re most likely to occur when people are upside down” on their mortgages. Many people no longer face such a situation because their home values recovered enough in 2013. In June, year-over-year median price gains peaked at 24.1 percent. Appreciation has since slowed, but in February, median values were still up annually by 14.2 percent — to $416,000. That has given people a key option in case they lose their jobs, can’t make mortgage payments and receive a notice of default, which triggers the 90-day foreclosure process. “They can sell” the home, Goldman said. “They might even get some cash from the sale.” Default notices also fell in February to 442, down from 551 a year earlier and the lowest for a February since 290 were filed in 2005. For a February, default notices peaked at 3,471 in 2009. U-T San Diego
Posted on: Wed, 19 Mar 2014 17:19:04 +0000
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