Foreclosures in County Drop 22% in Quarter

Ventura County, whose home sales showed the strongest improvement in Southern California in June, also had the region’s steepest decline in foreclosure proceedings during the second quarter.

Lenders recorded 678 notices of default in the county during the three months that ended June 30, according to Dataquick Information Systems. That’s 22% below the same quarter in 1993 and nearly 3% below this year’s first quarter. A notice of default is the first step in the foreclosure process.

The county’s year-to-year decline compares with a statewide drop of 5% and a reduction of 15% in Los Angeles County, which had the Southland’s second-best improvement.

Homeowners are generally eight to 10 months behind in their mortgage payments when lenders start the foreclosure process. And, while most notices are filed against middle-priced homes, the high end of the market has its problems, too.

Dataquick says there are 68 homes in foreclosure in Beverly Hills, 58 in Malibu and 37 in Bel-Air.