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From the U-T:

After dipping sharply in September, San Diego County notices of default bounced back last month, dimming hopes that the troubled housing market has seen the worst of the ongoing real estate slump.

Although still well below the peak foreclosure activity of the summer, defaults in November were on the rise following a brief lull. Analysts said the slowdown was caused by greater efforts by lenders to modify troubled home loans.

DataQuick reported 1,045 foreclosures within the county last month, a decrease of nearly 9 percent from October but a year-over-year increase of nearly 119 percent. In October foreclosures had declined 37 percent from the previous month, leading some analysts to believe the housing market was on the rebound.

DataQuick researcher Andrew LePage noted that November had only 17 business days, masking an upswing in daily foreclosure activity. Average daily foreclosure filings last month totaled 61 compared with about 50 in October, he said.

The pace of foreclosures in 2009 will depend on how successful the government is in encouraging loan modifications and propping up the sagging economy, LePage said, adding, “Without further government intervention, I think we are in for a big jump in the new year.”

DataQuick recently reported that 52 percent of all existing-home sales in San Diego County in November involved homes that had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months.

Heavy foreclosure activity is contributing to ongoing price declines, with the median price of a resale home in November at $335,000, down 33% from November 2007.

Some homeowners are reluctant to go into foreclosure, even when they’re overwhelmed by debt. In Chula Vista, Gustavo Diaz de Leon recently negotiated a short sale, in which his lender agreed to accept less than the amount due so he could avoid default.

“I didn’t want to just walk away.” Diaz de Leon said.

He said he used an adjustable loan to buy the home for $500,000 in 2005. It will be sold for about $330,000. Under the short-sale agreement, the proceeds will be used to pay off a first mortgage and Diaz de Leon will continue to pay off the home’s second mortgage.

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Here are the # of foreclosures Y-O-Y in North County areas:

The last number on the chart gives us some perspective – though foreclosures went up 133% year-over-year, it’s still less than 1% of the total properties in even the worst-hit neighborhoods.

Posted on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 at 8:40 AM in Foreclosure Count, Foreclosures/REOs | 6 Comments » |  Print You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.