Foreclosures Up 53% Over Previous Year

The annual foreclosure rate in Ventura County rose 53% in 1993 over the previous year, bringing the total number of residential and commercial foreclosures countywide to 1,609 this year, according to TRW-REDI Property Data, a real estate information company.

That compares to an increase in foreclosures of 75% in Los Angeles County during the same period and 58% statewide, according to the report released Wednesday.

The report also shows that foreclosures are declining in many parts of the country, California being the notable exception.

In a sense, TRW-REDI analysts said, the local foreclosure picture is improving, because the number of foreclosures in Ventura County rose by 80% in 1992 from 1991. The report lists 585 county foreclosures in 1991, and 1,052 in 1992.

“Foreclosures are still going up, but on a bright note, you can say the rate of increase has slowed down considerably,” said Nima Nattagh, an analyst for the property data company. “We are slowly coming out of the bottom of the real estate market.”

The statistics reported by TRW-REDI are based on public record documents in more than 50 metropolitan counties that cover one-fifth of the U.S. population.