Friday, February 03, 2006
Real estate foreclosure activity up sharply in Riverside County
This story details the latest home-foreclosure rates in California ...County notices of default increase 43.1 percent; 15.6 percent rise in CaliforniaDQNews.comLA JOLLA -- Foreclosure activity jumped in Riverside County in fourth-quarter 2005, the result of lower appreciation rates, a real estate information service reported. The number of notices of borrower default only edged up statewide.Lending institutions sent 14,999 default notices to California homeowners during the October-to-December period. That was up 19.0 percent from 12,606 for the third quarter, and up 15.6 percent from 12,978 for 2004's fourth quarter, according to DataQuick Information Systems. Notices of default went out to 1,607 Riverside County homeowners for the same period, up 43.1 percent from the 1,123 in the same period the previous year.Foreclosure activity hit a low during the third quarter of 2004 when 12,145 default notices were recorded. Defaults peaked in 1996's first quarter at 59,897. DataQuick's default statistics go back to 1992."There's always going to be a certain amount of financial distress. People lose their jobs, have medical emergencies, get divorced, pass away or make bad money decisions at a certain rate. Because of the rise in home values, much of that financial distress has been covered by the increasing amount of equity that people have had in their homes. That equity is now being created at a slower pace, and default activity is inevitably on the rise," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.The annual home appreciation rate in the state hit 22.8 percent during the second quarter of 2004. Since then it has come down, and in fourth-quarter 2005, it was 14.5 percent. The appreciation rate is expected to fall below 10 percent sometime this summer.DataQuick, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The numbers count recorded notices of default, the first step of the formal foreclosure process.The median amount owed when the default notice was recorded was $6,862 in fourth-quarter 2005, up from $6,130 for the same period a year ago.Only about 5 percent of homeowners who find themselves in default actually lose their homes to foreclosure. Most are able to stop the foreclosure process by bringing their mortgage payments current, or by selling their home and paying off the home loan(s).All regions of the state saw an increase in foreclosure activity, ranging from 10.5 percent in the Bay Area to 19.6 percent in Southern California (see chart).On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages are least likely to go into default in Marin County. The likelihood is highest in the Central Valley and Inland Empire.While foreclosure properties tugged property values down by almost 10 percent in some areas nine years ago, the effect on today's market is negligible, DataQuick reported. For a breakdown on the county and regional statistics, click here.Source: DataQuick Information SystemsLabels: Corona, Foreclosure, Home Prices, Inland Empire, Loan Modification, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Real Estate, Riverside, Short Sales, Statistics, Temecula
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