October 27, 2007 (LPAC)--24,200 homes in California were taken back by lenders in the third quarter 2007. That was an increase of more than 600% from the third quarter 2006, when 3,400 homes were lost to foreclosure, and an increase of 38% from the second quarter 2007. Although most of those foreclosures occurred in the interior of California, from Sacramento to Bakersfield, the San Francisco Bay Area also experienced a foreclosure increase exceeding 600%. Never before, in the 20 years that DataQuick Information Services has been tracking foreclosures, have foreclosures been so high.

Contra Costa County, with 1160 homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure in the third quarter 2007, experienced an increase of 874% compared to the same quarter last year; Alameda County experienced an increase of 486% with 674 homeowners losing their homes to foreclosure during the third quarter 2007. 495 Solano County homeowners lost their homes to foreclosure in the third quarter 2007 where 686% more homeowners lost their homes than in the third quarter 2006; 410 homeowners in Santa Clara County lost their homes in the same time period, an increase of 704% compared with 2006.

"More ominously, default notices, the first step in the foreclosure process, were growing more rapidly" statewide. 72,500 notices of default were sent out in the third period 2007, an increase of 166% from the third quarter 2006 and an increase of 34% from the second period 2007. DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage told the San Francisco Chronicle writer Carolyn Said, "There is no sign that we are close to turning the corner"; the level of foreclosures "is continuing to build and building even faster."

This slug was submitted by Michael Moberg.