O.C. foreclosures approach record high

January 15th, 2008, 9:17 am · 10 Comments · posted by Mathew Padilla

December was a tough month for struggling O.C. homeowners, according to the latest figures from DataQuick.

Lenders foreclosed on 644 homes in December, the second highest monthly total in DataQuick’s database, which goes back to 1988, and the highest since the record 674 foreclosures in October 1996. December’s total was up 432% from a year ago and 77% from November.

To be sure, foreclosures account for a small percentage of total housing stock in O.C., which has increased by tens of thousands of homes since the last downturn of the 1990s. But foreclosures and other distressed properties, such as when banks agree to allow an owner to sell for less than the mortgage owed, accounted for 26% of homes on the market last week, according to Steve Thomas at Re/Max Real Estate Services in Aliso Viejo.

And, DataQuick figures show, banks sent out 1,895 notices of default last month, up 175% from a year ago and 103% from November. Banks typically send out a notice of default after a borrower misses three or more monthly payments.

And now we can compare all of ‘07 to ‘06.

For 2007, there were 4,160 foreclosures, a more than six fold increase from ‘06. And there were 13,786 NODs in ‘07, more than double the total in ‘06. Here’s a table with both years side-by-side:

Year	2007		2006
Month	Defaults	Forec.	Defaults	Forec.
January	847	153	384	25
February	811	164	316	14
March	986	204	407	28
April	855	234	374	22
May	1,021	276	444	37
June	1,108	311	462	13
July	1,167	367	440	44
August	1,476	469	498	59
September	1,239	444	588	78
October	1,448	530	599	104
November	933	364	665	102
December	1,895	644	688	121
TOTAL	13,786	4,160	5,865	647

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Bill Jones says:

January 15, 2008 at 9:46 am

Remember that we aren’t through the worst of it, since foreclosures are usually a “lagging” stat - it will get worse (maybe much worse) before it gets better.

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David Poggi says:

January 15, 2008 at 10:00 am

I expect things to stay steady for quite some time at the very least. Things could go up and down a little each way for the next couple years.

Joe says:

January 15, 2008 at 10:04 am

I am in Anaheim and every Wednesday the OC Register community section list all those homwowners facing foreclosure. I would say that about 90% of the names listed are hispanic surnames.

Given that maybe this entire community, that is hispanic home owners is probably at 45%(just a guess) this is bad.

Sure anybody losing thier house is bad news but it seems like this group is losing their house at a greater percentage.

chris says:

January 15, 2008 at 10:14 am

we aren’t even near the bottom. think of all the happy families who purchased when they found out all they needed was stated income. lol @ OC and the lifestyle. exactly what bankrupted them the first time. greed.

J says:

January 15, 2008 at 10:15 am

But there is no bubble especially considering foreclosures are so low, oh wait Mr Watts wrong AGAIN

I wish we could just take every house, mark it down 30-40% immediatly and just move on. I know it is much more complicated then that but I am actually getting sick of all the bad news especially when I know alot more still has to come

DCRogers says:

January 15, 2008 at 11:06 am

Note that the O.C. had more NODs (1,895) than sales (1,731) in Dec 2007. Not a good sign.

Wonder says:

January 15, 2008 at 11:34 am

I think back then we had dot.com crisis, now we have
how(house).com crisis.

January 15, 2008 at 1:23 pm

Where are the ignorant bulls today? Are they slowly coming out of denial? WOW!

CLZ09 says:

January 15, 2008 at 1:40 pm

Guess that drop in foreclosures in November wasn’t the turning point afterall!!

If foreclosures are alreay running at a 7,000 annual rate, what will they be four years into the downturn in 2010? As a lagging stat they could peak out in 2014 at who knows what number … 30,000 a year?

ihatelasner&GWBush%2 says:

January 15, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Time to BUY!!!!

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