Santee Foreclosure Sales Down in June, Lowest in 2012

Also read:  by Rob McNelis

The number of San Diego County homes slipping toward foreclosure dropped by 1.4 percent in the second quarter of 2012, compared to the same period last year, a real estate information service reported today. 

In Santee, the rate of mortgage defaults is up from May, but still within the recent average, the rate of foreclosure sales is significantly down compared to last month, the lowest number in 2012.

In June, 28 home owners were given notice of default, up 12 percent from last month but down 15 percent from last year; 21 gave notice of sale, down 16 percent from May and down 30 percent from 2011, according to Foreclosure Radar.com

Lenders sent default notices to 4,099 homeowners in San Diego County in the second quarter, down from the 2011 second-quarter total of 4,158, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

Statewide, default notices were sent to 54,615 homeowners in the second quarter of the year, DataQuick reported. That was a 2.9 percent drop from the previous quarter's 56,258 notices and down 3.6 percent from the second quarter in 2011, when 56,633 default notices were sent.

"The foreclosure process has always been the sanitation department of the housing sector," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "It's where financial distress is processed. The question is whether these lower (default notice) numbers mean that there's less distress to process, or if we're just seeing distress get processed at a slower pace."

Default notices do not always lead to a home foreclosure, according to DataQuick. Some homeowners emerge from the foreclosure process by bringing their payments current, refinancing or selling the home.

Read more about Santee home foreclosures at Foreclosure Radar.com

-City News Service contributed to this report

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