Home Foreclosure Hit 8-Year Low Amid Strong Sales, Prices

Strong home sales and escalating home prices pushed foreclosures in California to an eight-year low in the second quarter.

Lenders initiated foreclosure proceedings on 21,440 homeowners from April to June this year, down 15.6% from a year ago, according to DataQuick Information Systems, a La Jolla-based real estate information service. Last quarter’s figures were the lowest since foreclosure proceedings in the first-quarter of 1992. The all-time high for foreclosures was during the first quarter of 1996, when 44,665 homes went into foreclosure.

Foreclosure proceedings were started on 5,970 homes in Los Angeles County during the second quarter, down from 7,116 during the same period in 1999. In Orange County, 998 homes went into foreclosure, compared with 1,260 in 1999’s second quarter.

Foreclosures usually occur when a homeowner owes more on a home than it could be sold for.