Santa Clara County housing defaults set record, thousands nearing foreclosure

The Mortgage Mess

July 23 2008 - Before plunging into our offerings today, some of you may want to take a deep sniff of smelling salts. This first item is not for the faint-hearted.

Matching a statewide trend, more Santa Clara County homeowners fell behind on their mortgage payments in the second quarter of this year than during any quarter on record, a real estate information company reported today.

Mortgage lenders sent 3,751 “notices of default” to homeowners in the county in the April-to-June period, according to DataQuick Information Systems. That’s up 22 percent from 3,074 in the first quarter, and up 194 percent from 1,275 in the same period last year.

Lenders send notices of default to borrowers who have failed to pay their mortgages for a few months; the notices are the first step in the foreclosure process. Both in Santa Clara County and statewide, last quarter’s defaults were the highest for any quarter on DataQuick’s records, which begin in 1992.

Santa Clara County housing defaults set record, thousands nearing foreclosure
by Steve Johnson | Mercury News