An improving housing market and fewer bad loans helped bring new California foreclosure actions in the second quarter to their lowest level since early 2007 while the number of homes lost to foreclosure plunged, fresh data show.
The number of notices of default filed on California houses and condominiums in the second quarter fell 2.9% from the prior quarter and were down 3.6% from the same period a year ago. Notices of defaults are the first public filings made to initiate foreclosure and therefore any uptick in future foreclosed homes would be detected with an increase in the number of filings.
A total of 54,615 notices of default were filed last quarter.
DataQuick President John Walsh said in a statement that it was unclear whether the drop in the number of homes entering the foreclosure process was a sign that the worst was over or simply that the process itself had slowed.
“The foreclosure process has always been the sanitation department of the housing sector,” he said. “The question is whether these lower … numbers mean that there’s less distress to process, or if we’re just seeing distress get processed at a slower pace.”
The number of homes being lost to foreclosure plunged. The number of trustee deeds, which are the public documents filed when a foreclosure is completed, fell 27.8% from the prior quarter and were down 48.5% from the same period as last year. A total of 21,851 deeds were filed last quarter.
source: latimes.com
