Big drop in foreclosures

First-quarter notices of default in L.A. County tumbled 43.5 percent from a year earlier and 4.8 percent from the previous three months, according to Dataquick, though it's not clear whether the decline is due to market conditions or loan modification programs by governments and lenders. The median origination month for last quarter's defaulted loans was July 2006. From press release:

"Several factors are at play here and it's hard to know how they play into each other right now. A year-and-a-half ago the subprime loan mess was the black hole. Now, playing catch-up, is the financial distress households are experiencing because of the recession. Add to the mix shifting policy decisions, both by lending institutions and in public policy," said John Walsh, DataQuick president. "We are seeing signs that the worst may be over in the hard-hit entry-level markets, while problems are slowly spreading to more expensive neighborhoods. We're also seeing some lenders become more accommodating to work-outs or short sales, while others appear to be getting stricter about delinquencies. It's very noisy out there," Walsh said.

County/Region 2009Q1 2010Q1 Yr/Yr%

Los Angeles 27,981 15,797 -43.5%

Orange 8,427 5,270 -37.5%

San Diego 10,111 6,170 -39.0%

Riverside 16,906 8,474 -49.9%

San Bernardino 13,276 6,736 -49.3%

Ventura 2,648 1,643 -38.0%

Imperial 885 491 -44.5%