11:49am | After dropping to a three-year low in the second quarter, the number of Californians pulled into the foreclosure process “snapped back” to previous levels over the last three months, a real estate information service reported on Tuesday.
A total of 71,275 notices of default were recorded at county recorders offices during the third quarter, up 25.9 percent from the previous three months, but down 14.4 percent from the third-quarter 2010, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.
Last quarter’s figures jumped back to levels seen earlier this year and late last year, according to DataQuick.
“The way it looks right now, it’s reasonable to expect default filings to run at a somewhat higher level than we saw earlier this year,” said John Walsh, DataQuick’s president. “Obviously, some lenders and loan servicers have begun to plow through their backlogs of delinquent loans more aggressively.”
Most of the loans going into default are still from the 2005-2007. Defaults by price segment show that distress is not spread evenly. Last quarter, zip codes with median sale prices below $200,000 collectively saw 11 default notices filed per 1,000 homes. That compares with 8.1 notices filed per 1,000 homes for all zip codes statewide, and 2.8 filings per 1,000 homes in zips with medians above $800,000.
Long Beach and its surrounding communities have several zip codes in these ranges. Homes prices in many of the city’s more affordable areas have been dragged down by foreclosure sales, area real estate agents have reported.
On primary mortgages, California homeowners were a median eight months behind on their payments when the lender filed the notice of default. The borrowers owed a median $19,198 on a median $331,333 mortgage. The median amount borrowers owed at the time the notice was filed rose about 17 percent from the prior quarter and 27 percent from a year earlier. The gains likely stem from some lenders working faster last quarter to get caught up on their backlogs of long-delinquent loans, according to DataQuick.