LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A total of 97,303 California homeowners found themselves being foreclosed on last year, according to a real estate information service.
That means one of every 65 homeowners got into trouble in 1992, a rate of 15.4 per 1,000 residential properties (see chart), La Jolla- based Dataquick Information Systems reported.
The foreclosure problem hit Southern California particularly hard, especially the Inland Empire counties of Riverside and San Bernardino where foreclosure rates were 23.8 and 21.6 per thousand.
At the other end of the scale, rural counties like Tulare, Napa and Madera have relatively modest foreclosure rates with fewer than five per thousand, Dataquick reported.
"Foreclosure is a nasty situation to be in, but if matters are handled correctly, they can often be resolved. It's very important to sit down and talk with your lender if you lose your job or experience some other severe financial setback," said Donald L. Cohn, Dataquick chief executive officer.
Roughly half the homeowners that ended up in foreclosure were able to halt the process before the final trustee's sale. They did this by either bringing their mortgage payments current, or by selling the property and paying the mortgage off.
"We saw a rapid increase in the number of foreclosure proceedings statewide during the first half of 1992, and then things leveled off. We're not sure if it's because of better times, or if lending institutions became more willing to negotiate new terms," said Cohn.
A total of 10,149 notices of default (NODs) were recorded on residential property at county recorders offices in July, 1992's peak month. Since then, statewide monthly totals have ranged from 8,331 (November) to 9,777 (August). A recorded Notice of Default is the first step in the foreclosure process.
Dataquick monitors all California real estate purchasing and financing and provides real estate information to lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. The company added detailed foreclosure data to it's system in January last year.
The average homeowner being foreclosed on was 8.7 months behind on his or her mortgage payments when the Notice of Default was recorded.
The typical home in foreclosure was a 1,386-square-foot home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, bought in October 1988.
The lending institutions that most actively foreclose are also those most actively make home loans: Home Savings, Great Western and Bank of America, Dataquick reported.
Number of 1992 NODs
SFRs & NOD per
County Condos count 1,000
Los Angeles 1,637,566 33,953 20.7
Orange County 586,579 9,087 15.5
San Diego 566,458 7,879 13.9
Riverside 339,108 8,073 23.8
San Bernardino 380,866 8,239 21.6
Ventura 183,560 2,926 15.9
So.Calif. Total 3,694,137 70,156 19.0
San Francisco 111,174 1,284 11.5
Alameda 276,210 2,877 10.4
Contra Costa 224,809 3,025 13.5
Santa Clara 357,381 3,334 9.3
San Mateo 160,074 1,918 12.0
Marin 69,377 575 8.3
Solano 76,994 1,284 16.7
Sonoma 83,225 944 11.3
Napa 23,321 103 4.4
Bay Area Total 1,382,565 15,344 11.1
Santa Cruz 54,092 502 9.3
Santa Barbara 77,451 797 10.3
San Luis Obispo 79,271 634 8.0
Monterey 64,392 811 12.6
Coast Total 275,206 2,744 10.0
Sacramento 270,595 2,685 9.9
San Joaquin 91,667 1,048 11.4
Placer 62,515 752 12.0
Kern 124,943 1,121 9.0
Fresno 143,873 974 6.8
Madera 21,965 103 4.7
Merced 32,972 590 17.9
Tulare 59,130 251 4.2
Yolo 28,261 162 5.7
El Dorado 36,049 310 8.6
Stanislaus 80,836 1,062 13.1
Inland Total 952,806 9,059 9.5
All California 6,304,715 97,303 15.4
-0- 1/19/93
/CONTACT: John Karevoll, 714-867-9534/

CO: ST: California IN: FIN SU:

JL -- LA022 -- 6429 01/19/93 14:08 EST

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