foreclosure rate rises, San Joaquin County
S.J. default foreclosure rate rises by 16.3 percent
recordnet.com
By Bruce Spence
Record Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Although homes going into foreclosure dropped statewide in the first quarter by 14.2 percent compared with a year ago, the default rate in San Joaquin County rose by 16.3 percent.
According to DataQuick Information Systems of San Diego, the number of California homes that went into foreclosure in January through March dropped 14.2 percent compared with the first quarter of last year.
Statewide, lending institutions started foreclosure proceedings on 20,093 homeowners, down from 23,406 a year ago.
Foreclosures also declined in most of the Valley and foothills counties from Sacramento to Kern counties.
For example, mortgage defaults dropped 27 percent in Stanislaus County year to year, falling from 495 in the first quarter of last year to 361 in the first three months of this year.
That was the biggest percentage drop in that region. Sacramento County's foreclosure rates dropped 14.4 percent for the same period, falling from 1,196 to 1,024. ::: Advertisement :::
San Joaquin County's 16.3 percent increase was the highest in the Valley/foothills region.
Merced was next, with foreclosures rising from 178 a year ago to 202 in the first quarter of this year, a 13.5 percent increase.
Last quarter, DataQuick reported that the number of San Joaquin County homes going into foreclosure jumped 26 percent for the year, rising from 2,277 in 2001 to 2,870 last year.
DataQuick analyst John Karevoll still called that low overall for the county.
DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide.
DataQuick President Marshall Prentice said he expects defaults to increase somewhat the rest of the year statewide if for no other reason that there are more "fresh" home loans than ever before.
DataQuick reported that 80 percent of homeowners who end up in default stop the foreclosure process by either catching up on the mortgage payment or else selling their homes to pay off the home loan.
In contrast, only half of homeowners in foreclosure difficulty were able to do that in the mid-1990s, DataQuick said. |
