San Diego Foreclosures Up 60%!

First-quarter foreclosure activity in the state jumped to its highest level in two years, including a nearly 60 percent rise in San Diego County, a real estate information service reported Tuesday.

"A number of factors are driving defaults higher," said Marshall Prentice, president of La Jolla-based DataQuick. "The main one right now is that home values are rising more slowly than they have been the past couple of years, which makes it more difficult for homeowners to sell their homes and pay off the lender."

According to DataQuick, lenders sent 18,668 default notices to California homeowners in the first three months of the year. That's a 23.4 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 28.7 percent jump over the same period last year.

In San Diego County, lenders sent 1,533 default notices in the first quarter, a 59.7 percent jump over the same quarter of 2005, when 960 notices were sent.

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