FEWER FORFEIT HOMES.Byline: Gregory J. Wilcox Staff Writer After falling for nine years, foreclosure foreclosure Legal proceeding by which a borrower's rights to a mortgaged property may be extinguished if the borrower fails to live up to the obligations agreed to in the loan contract. activity in California appeared to hit bottom in the second quarter as appreciation rates softened soft·en v. soft·ened, soft·en·ing, soft·ens v.tr. 1. To make soft or softer. 2. To undermine or reduce the strength, morale, or resistance of. 3. , an industry tracker said Friday. During the April to June period, lenders sent default notices to 12,408 California homeowners, down 14.4 percent from 14,501 for the first three months of the year and a 0.9 percent decline from the year-ago period, said DataQuick Information Systems. A default notice is the first step in the foreclosure process and most homeowners rectify rec·ti·fy v. 1. To set right; correct. 2. To refine or purify, especially by distillation. the situation before losing their homes. Activity peaked in the 1996 first quarter when lenders issued 59,897 default notices, DataQuick said. The low point was 12,145 notices issued in last year's third quarter. ``We have to remember that a certain level of foreclosure activity is normal in any market. Current foreclosure rates are unnaturally low and we expect them to go up during the rest of this year as appreciation rates ease back,'' DataQuick president Marshall Prentice said in a statement. During the second quarter, the median price of homes foreclosed on increased 16.7 percent to $433,000. In the 2004 second quarter, the median price increased 22.8 percent. Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, saw a slight year-over-year increase in foreclosure activity, while the Bay Area and Central Valley saw slight decreases. Defaults are least likely in San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (săn l  `ĭs ōbĭs`pō), city (1990 pop. 41,958), seat of San Luis Obispo co., S Calif., near San Luis Obispo Bay; inc. 1856. , San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden and Napa counties. The likelihood is highest in Central Valley counties, DataQuick said. It would take a severe economic shock to drive prices down, which would bring a spike in foreclosure activity. ``That's pretty hard to see over the next several years,'' said Robert Kleinhenz, deputy chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the at the California Association of Realtors. ``And we could be in for a long wave of economic expansion.'' Gregory J. Wilcox, (818) 713-3743 greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com |
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