Foreclosure filings up sharply over last year

http://www.sacbee.com/business/story/1933547.html

Lenders made a daily average of 203 foreclosure filings against struggling borrowers in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento and Yolo counties in the past year, according to Santa Ana-based real estate tracker First American CoreLogic.

Borrowers in the region received 74,348 notices, ranging from first warnings to repossessions, from May 2008 to April 2009, the firm said.

That was sharply higher than the 51,307 filings during the same period a year earlier when lenders filed an average of 140 notices daily.

The increase reflects the growing struggles of homeowners to make their mortgage payments amid rising unemployment and falling home values. First American said 6.78 percent of the region’s home loans were 90 days or more delinquent in April, compared with 6.48 percent a year ago. The Sacramento region’s delinquency rate is worse than the U.S. average of 5.1 percent but better than California’s statewide average of 7.08 percent.