Defaults and Forecosures up in San Diego County

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• 58 percent jump year-over-year, January 2014 defaults, January 2014 foreclosures, Linda Moore, median price in San Diego County, month-to-month, real estate in San Diego County, San Diego County defaults, San Diego County foreclosed homes, year-over-year
• February 19, 2014

Even though the Great Recession is still lingering, foreclosures and default notices have increased in January, according to an article in the San Diego Union-Times.

According to DataQuick, there were foreclosures on 149 homes in San Diego County, and there were also 490 default notices issued as well to begin the 90-day foreclosure procedure.

However even though there was an increase for the month-to-month, the trend is actually down overall. That didn’t stop the year-over-year being at an upswing, as January 2013 displayed 310 while the month-to-month showed 387 filed. The year-over-year tally is a 58 percent jump from January 2013 to last month’s numbers.

“That’s disconcerting and something to keep an eye on,” said San Diego State University Professor and loan officer to Mark Goldman to U-T San Diego. “It’s probably too early to blame it on something like Congress deciding not to extend unemployment benefits. If that were a factor, we’d see that coming up in the next 60 days.”

From December 2012 to January 2013, default notices dropped from an astonishing 878 to 310. Although that default notices however hopped back up to 551 in February 2013.

“The reason for last year’s low number could have been due to the initiation of the Homeowner Bill of Rights, which mandated banks not file a default notice while a short sale or loan modification was in progress,” said DataQuick Analyst Andrew LePage to U-T San Diego. “That also could be why the January 2013 to January 2014 year-over-year change looks high.”

From December, lenders repossessed 136 homes in San Diego County, and foreclosures repossessed last month were at 149 homes. Last month’s number decreased to 60 percent from January 2013’s 382 foreclosures in San Diego County.

“That’s not a significant increase,” Goldman said to U-T San Diego. “They’re bouncing along at relatively low levels.”

The declining of foreclosures and notices were in the thousands during the peak of the Great Recession. The ones who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage, are no longer as much in a financial bind since the values of San Diego County real estate have recovered. With this indication, these people don’t have to sell their homes to avoid default.

As of January 2013, the median price for a home in San Diego County was listed at $405,000 according to DataQuick.

By Linda Moore