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While mortgage defaults declined in California during the first quarter of 2011, foreclosures were up, according to ""DataQuick"":http://www.dataquick.com, a locally based real estate information service.
[IMAGE]A total of 68,239 notices of default (NoDs) were recorded during the period, down 2.2 percent from the prior quarter and down 15.8 percent from the first quarter of 2010. It was also the lowest period of activity for NoDs since the second quarter of 2007.
""Lenders and servicers have put various temporary holds on foreclosure filings while they work on procedural issues and respond to regulatory and legal challenges,"" said John Walsh, DataQuick president. ""It's unclear how much of last quarter's decline can be attributed to market factors and strategic decisions and how much can be attributed to the formalities of the foreclosure process.""
[COLUMN_BREAK]Mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties, while the probability was highest in Tulare, Madera, and San Joaquin counties, according to DataQuick's study.
Homes lost to foreclosure totaled 43,052 during the first quarter, up 21.5 percent from the prior quarter and up 0.5 percent from the first quarter of 2010. The all-time peak was in third-quarter 2008.
Foreclosure resales accounted for 39.9 percent of all California resale activity last quarter. It was 37.5 percent the prior quarter, and a year ago it was 42.5 percent.
The most active ""beneficiaries"" in the formal foreclosure process last quarter were JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America, DataQuick reports.
Servicers that pursued the highest number of defaults last quarter were ReconTrust Co. (mostly for Bank of America and MERS), Quality Loan Service Corp. (Bank of America), California Reconveyance Co. (JP Morgan Chase), NDEx West (Wells Fargo), and Cal-Western Reconveyance Corp. (Wells Fargo).
Short sales made up an estimated 18.2 percent of statewide resale activity last quarter, up from an estimated 17.9 percent the prior quarter and 17.7 percent a year ago.
San Diego-based DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies, and industry analysts.
