Decline in Pre-foreclosures in SF Bay Area – Q1 Report

The declining trend of foreclosure filings in the State, compared to last year, is reflected in the 9 county SF Bay Area as well. Home prices soared while the number of pre-foreclosures slowed.

According to latest statistics on foreclosure activity in California State, for the first 3 months of 2010, the number of default notices issued to delinquent home owners dropped by 4 percent to 81,054. In the SF Bay Area in particular, the number of mortgage defaults dropped by 35 percent in the first 3 months, compared to the quarter ended December 2009, to 13,517 default notices.

As regards home sales there is also good news. In the Bay Area, the total number of residential properties sold jumped to 6,992 in March, compared to 6,325 units sold in March 2009, showing an increase of 10.5 percent.

Similarly the median price of existing homes, condos and newly-built houses in the SF Bay Area soared to $380,000 in March this year. Compared to the median price that was prevailing in March last year – $290,000 – a good 31 percent increase in the home prices is recorded. Even compared to February median price of $354,000, this is an increase of 7.3 percent.

Local realtors are of the view that the rise in median price is attributed to increase in sales of high-cost residential properties partly and also the decline in sale of foreclosure properties reported in the market statistics.

Another notable trend, according to market analysts is, the foreclosure pace in respect of lower-cost markets is slowing down, unlike the immediate months following the foreclosure crisis. Instead, it is on the increase on the higher-cost markets, escaping the after-math of foreclosure problem earlier.

Bank repossessed properties after foreclosure sale public auction reached 8,203 properties, showing a drop by 13.48 percent compared to the last quarter of 2009. When compared to the trend in the country during the first three months, this is encouraging as well.

But as a freak occurrence, the number of actual foreclosures rose to 193 properties in San Francisco County, an increase by 91 percent in the first quarter. However considering the number of properties available for sale, this is quite small in number.

Posted by Amitesh Kumar on Apr 30 2010. Filed under Foreclosures, Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry