FORECLOSURE ACTIVITY UP.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Staff Writer Softer appreciation rates drove 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 to its highest level in two years during the first quarter, including a 19.1 percent annual spike A burst of extra voltage in a power line that lasts only a few nanoseconds. See power surge, power swell, sag and surge suppression. (jargon) spike - To defeat a selection mechanism by introducing a (sometimes temporary) device that forces a specific result. in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County, an industry tracker said Tuesday. However, foreclosure activity is coming off all-time low levels and would have to double or triple to cause market distress, said La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems. In the year's first three months, lenders issued 18,668 default notices to California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). homeowners, up an annual 28.7 percent and a 23.4 percent increase from the 2005 fourth quarter. The last time it was this high was the 18,738 notices in the fourth quarter of 2003. Across the county, 4,211 homeowners received the notices, the first step in the foreclosure process. That's the most since 4,736 in the first quarter of 2004. By comparison, DataQuick analyst John Karevoll said an average of 11,211 default notices were issued each quarter in the county over the past 14 years. "We're coming off the bottom here. We though this would happen earlier and we thought this would happen stronger, so this is an indicator of a stronger market than we anticipated," he said. Factors other than appreciation also affect foreclosure activity, said DataQuick president Marshall Prentice. They include the amount of equity people have in their property, the type of mortgage they used and how long they've had that mortgage. The low point for statewide foreclosure activity came in the third quarter of 2004, when property owners received 12,145 default notices. Activity peaked in the 1996 first quarter with 59,897 notices. DataQuick's default statistics go back to 1992. Market watchers have been predicting for months that annual price appreciation rates would narrow, and that is now happening. Statewide, the annual appreciation rate hit a high of 22.8 percent during the second quarter of 2004. Since then, it's fallen to 12.4 percent in the first quarter of this year. San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. County may offer a glimpse of what's to come. That market had an annual appreciation rate of 4.9 percent in the first quarter and a 59.7 percent jump in foreclosure activity. 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 mortgage balance. On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages are least likely to go into default in the San Francisco Bay Area “Bay Area” redirects here. For other uses, see Bay Area (disambiguation). The San Francisco Bay Area, colloquially known as the Bay Area or The Bay . The likelihood is highest in the Central Valley and Inland Empire In·land Empire A region of the northwest United States between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, comprising eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, northern Idaho, and western Montana. Farming, lumbering, and mining are important to the area. , the company 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, said that as this market continues softening softening /sof·ten·ing/ (sof´en-ing) malacia. softening a change of consistency, with loss of firmness or hardness. , the most risk will be faced by relatively new buyers financed with interest-only, straight adjustable or other creative loan products. And while the supply of properties for sale increased in the year's first two months and helped mitigate mit·i·gate v. To moderate in force or intensity. mit  i·ga tion n. price increases, it
fell in March. And inventory is still lean enough to drive price
increases, something that will ease the foreclosure risk.
"The underlying economic conditions that give rise to large numbers of (foreclosures) are really nowhere in sight. You really need to have quite a bit of economic distress and we don't expect that over the near future." greg.wilcox(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3743 |
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