Notices of House Repossession Rose in the Bay Area
Residential real estate experts in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, California are bracing themselves for more mortgage trouble as foreclosure data for the second quarter of this year showed a significant increase in the number of notices of house repossession.
Market data showed that the number of delinquent borrowers who received notices of house repossession reach a total of 20,000 from April to June. Industry analysts pointed out that the figures are the surest sign of a market in great distress.
According to analysts, significant increases in default notices were registered in higher-cost zip codes. Towns that have high concentration of mortgage defaults, such as Antioch, are still on the ranking but showed some slight improvement from last year.
The increase in notices of house repossession was noticeable in affluent areas, including the Contra Costa County towns of Walnut Creek, Danville and Lafayette. These areas posted significant increases in foreclosure filings. The numbers may not be that high, but still significant which led many analysts to say that the problem is spreading and intensifying in affluent neighborhoods.
The 19,983 total foreclosure filings in the Bay Area reflected an increase of 7.3 percent from the same period the previous year.
Notices received by distressed homeowners are the first step in the foreclosure proceeding. According to market data, 62 percent of foreclosure filings result in house repossession.
Statewide, foreclosure filings also rose compared with the previous year’s second quarter. For this year, 124,562 filings were reported, an increase of 2.4 percent compared with 2008, but the numbers dropped by 8 percent compared with figures in the first quarter which totaled 135,431.
The number of completed foreclosures in the Bay Area and California dropped for the period. Industry experts said that the decline may be due to lenders preparing for the flood of loan modification requests.
The total actual foreclosures in the Bay Area was 6,929 in the second quarter of this year, a decline of 25.4 percent from the quarter the previous year. Likewise, California’s total foreclosure of 45,667 presented a decline of 27.9 percent compared with the previous year.
Industry analysts said that actual house repossession slowed slightly this year because lenders have implemented the federal government’s loan modification program to help homeowners avoid foreclosures.
