How low can you go? (Real Estate).

Both statewide commercial loan delinquencies and residential foreclosures hovered near historic lows during the first quarter as low interest rates keep monthly payments down and property values high.

Just $89.6 million out of $48.6 billion in loans surveyed, 0.18 percent, were two or more months delinquent, according to the Sacramento-based California Mortgage Bankers Association. While that figure was up from 0.14 percent for the fourth quarter and from 0.03 percent for the first quarter 2002, the increase is negligible, according to Peter Ulrich, commercial consultant at CMBA.

"It's extremely low," said Ulrich, noting that the highest delinquency figure CMBA has on record is 6.7 percent for the second quarter of 1993. "Lenders are being more careful these days, and the low interest rates help."

Meanwhile, lenders sent out notices of default on 20,093 California homes during the first quarter, up 4.5 percent from the fourth quarter but down 14.2 percent from the year earlier period, according to DataQuick Information Services. Default notices, the first step in the foreclosure process, were down 23.7 percent from a year earlier in L.A. County.

"There's always a floor level of foreclosure activity and we may be nearing that," said John Karevoll, an analyst at DataQuick, noting that rising home values have afforded homeowners the option of cashing out by selling instead of going into foreclosure. "Once appreciation rates start to level off toward the end of the year, foreclosure levels will start to creep back up."

Danny King can be reached at [phone] ext. 230, or at [e-mail].