We’ve all heard that foreclosures are on the rise. On Tuesday, the quarterly numbers came out for California. Brace yourself.
Here’s the link to the L.A. Times article. The exerpt below is from a short story posted on latimes.com on Tuesday afternoon:
A record 31,676 Californians lost their homes to foreclosure in the three months ended Dec. 31, the third-straight quarter of record-breaking foreclosures, records released today show. Foreclosures were more than double the level of the worst quarter of the last real estate downturn, when 15,418 homes were taken back by lenders in the third quarter of 1996, according to DataQuick Information Systems.
Whoa. And most experts are saying things are going to get worse before they get better. Here’s a quote from economist Christopher Thornburg of Beacon Economics:
The foreclosure peak of 1996 occurred at the end of an economic recession, Thornberg noted. That makes the sharp rise in foreclosures more alarming, he says, because the recession is just beginning. “If you think the market’s bad now, wait a year,” he said.
Yikes.
On the same subject, check out this item from the L.A. Times’ L.A. Land blog. Turns out the foreclosure stats include a number of people who can afford their mortgages, but are choosing to walk away because their homes have lost value.
In Southern California, Riverside County saw the biggest increase in default notices from the same quarter a year ago — up 119%. Which county was second? San Bernardino County, you say? Nope — it was affluent Orange County (116%), followed by San Bernardino County (106%), San Diego County (95%), Ventura County (89%) and Los Angeles County (83%).
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