29 Jan Foreclosures in San Diego hit rock bottom in 2014

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 real estate tracking firm CoreLogic DataQuick.

Not only did the number of foreclosures fall last year, they are at pre-recession figures. 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.

Those foreclosures helped the county recover from the housing recession. Investors fixed and flipped foreclosed properties, and that activity  helped the county climb out of its real estate slump. That’s now over. The number of foreclosures late last year made up only 3.9 percent of overall sales — the lowest since 2006. In December 2014, 137 homes were foreclosed in the county – just 12 more than in November.

Real estate in San Diego stabilizes

Now that the market has largely stabilized and median prices are up in San Diego, homeowners in default are now able to sell their homes for a profit and avoid foreclosures. As a result, 2014 saw real estate in San Diego return to normalcy and more sustainable growth after periods of double-digit home appreciation, as consumers — not investors — had more of an impact on the market. Default notices, which trigger the foreclosure process, are also at their lowest levels since 2005, with 5,191 notices issued, compared to 6,300 in 2013. As many as 35,215 notices were filed in 2009 during the height of the recession.

The median price of a home was $436,500  in 2014, according to CoreLogic, while sales fell 10 percent to 38,383, with traditional factors such as job growth, wages and supply and demand affecting the market. Home prices remained steady.