Getting a handle on foreclosures

California's third-quarter numbers are crazy high, of course, with a record 72,571 Notices of Default filed in the July-September period. That's even higher than during the housing crunch back in the 1990s (the previous peak was 1996). But it does help to break apart the numbers to see where most of the action is coming from. And according to Dataquick, which released the information this morning, half the entire state's default activity is concentrated in 293 zip codes, almost all of them in the Inland Empire and Central Valley. This is where home prices shot up toward the latter stages of the boom in 2005 and 2006 - and most of the loans that went into default last quarter originated during that stretch. In other words, this is not a wide-scale crisis, as some have suggested. Even so, it is a problem, as the percentages clearly show. Mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo counties; and most likely in Merced, San Joaquin and Riverside counties. In L.A. County, there were 13,583 NODs in the third quarter, up 144.1 percent from the 5,565 in the year-ago quarter.

2007 Q3 Notices of Default (% increase from 2006 Q3)

Los Angeles +144.1%
Orange +158.8%
San Diego +140.9%
Riverside +204.3%
San Bernardino +176.2%
Ventura +138.2%
San Francisco +69.1%
Alameda +164.8%
Contra Costa +217.8%
Marin +93.3%

Source: Dataquick