Jump in foreclosures

Folks, it's ugly out there. A total of 20,339 L.A. County homes went into foreclosure in the first quarter, a 130 percent jump from a year earlier. Statewide foreclosures were at their highest level in 15 years. As reported by Dataquick, most of the loans that went into default originated between August 2005 and October 2006, which you might recall is when the market was turning nutty. Those "loans gone wild" are working their way through the system. Now the big question is whether foreclosures will spread into well-established mortgages. That would be bad. Last quarter's default numbers were a record in most of the state – except for L.A. County. That’s because the recession in the early 1990s was so severe. On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. The likelihood was highest in Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.

Notices of Default (% change from 2007Q1)

Los Angeles 20,339 130.0%
Orange 7,082 167.9%
San Diego 8,975 128.3%
Riverside 15,022 161.3%
San Bernardino 11,149 155.9%
Ventura 2,176 125.5%
San Francisco 420 94.4%
Alameda 3,194 102.4%
Contra Costa 4,718 139.6%
Santa Clara 3,074 190.5%
San Mateo 911 138.5%
Marin 166.1%
Santa Barbara 897 141.1%
San Luis Obispo 385 112.7%

Source: Dataquick