02 Mar Foreclosures in San Diego down

The number of foreclosures in San Diego continued to fall last month.

Lenders repossessed 122 foreclosures in San Diego, down 18 percent from 149 in January 2014, according to reports by real estate tracking firm CoreLogic DataQuick, and continue a declining trend in San Diego real estate. At the same time that lenders are foreclosing on fewer properties, home prices have also increased. The median home price for a home sold in San Diego was $435,000 last month, up 7.4 percent. The higher home prices give homeowners who are in financial trouble the ability to get out of a bad loan and sell before lenders foreclosure.

The latest foreclosure numbers are a far cry from the high of 1,316 in February 2008, during the height of the housing recession. Although foreclosures once dominated the market in San Diego at one point, their numbers have fallen drastically as the market has rebounded and stabilized. In December 2014, there were just 137 foreclosures in San Diego County.

The number of foreclosures in San Diego County fell to record lows last year. In 2014, lenders foreclosed on 1,666 properties in the county, down 31 percent from the 2,408 foreclosures reported in 2013, according to CoreLogic DataQuick. Not only did the number of foreclosures fall last year, they are at pre-recession levels. Last year’s foreclosures marked the lowest amount of bank repossessions since 2006 which, at their highest, grew to 17,712 in 2008. At that time, homes had lost nearly 1/3 of their value, from a median price of $500,000 to $360,000 for a home sold in San Diego.

Default notices, which lenders file to begin the foreclosure process after 90 days of delinquent payments, were also down in  January. There were 422 notices issued in January, down 14 percent from the same period one year ago. Default notices peaked at 3,832 in March 2009.