L.A. foreclosures still piling up

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Los Angeles County mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures in April continued to outpace levels of the previous year, according to data today from First American Core Logic.

In April, 7.16% of Los Angeles County mortgages were in default, up from 4.67% in April 2008, according to First American, which reports on foreclosures as a percentage of active mortgages, rather than as a share of total households as some other firms do.

Defaults are the first stage in foreclosure, occurring when a borrower has missed multiple payments. Bank repossessions, the final step, were also up, to 1.4% of active mortgages in April, from 0.95% in April 2008.

From May 2008 to April 2009, L.A. County averaged 361 foreclosure filings a day. That was up from an average of 20 per day the previous 12 months.

That means a whole lot of distressed inventory is on its way to being resold on the open market, putting more downward pressure on home prices.

-- Peter Y. Hong