Report: California Foreclosures Down In 2014

Foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac’s year-end report shows California had 108,000 properties with foreclosure filings in 2014. That was down 20 percent from 2013 and it was an 83 percent drop from the peak of foreclosure activity in 2009.

RealtyTrac’s Daren Blomquist says California’s numbers are getting closer to being back to normal.    

“The numbers statewide were at their lowest level since 2006," says Blomquist. "2006 was the last year that we would consider kind of a normal market before the housing bust and ensuing foreclosure crisis.”

Blomquist says there’s still a little bit of concern about a backlog of delayed foreclosures held up by California’s Homeowner Bill of Rights. But that law took effect two years ago and Blomquist says the feared backlog has yet to materialize.

Sacramento region home foreclosure activity is also at the lowest level since 2006. The research firm says there were just over eight thousand properties with foreclosure filings in 2014, down 21-percent from the previous year. Blomquist says Stockton saw even bigger decreases.

"There were just about 2,200 properties with foreclosure filings in Stockton in 2014, down 43 percent from the previous year and actually that was below what it was back in 2006," says Blomquist. "Not to say that the housing market over there in Stockton is completely rosy but when it comes to foreclosures we're seeing that market back to below pre-housing crisis levels."

Nevada has the fifth highest foreclosure rate in the country. Blomquist says Nevada's December foreclosure starts increased from a year ago by triple-digits.

"We did see in December a 194 percent increase statewide in foreclosure starts and in November there was a 138 percent increase."

Blomquist says Nevada still has a backlog of delinquent mortgages because of state laws that slowed the foreclosure process.