San Diego County foreclosure filings — the records filed when a house enters a new stage of foreclosure — reached a total of 5,786 in March, up 22 percent from February and up 127 percent from March 2007, according to data from RealtyTrac released this morning.
The median price paid for a home of any type in San Diego County last month was $395,000, 19.4 percent lower than in March 2007, and the lowest seen since November 2003, DataQuick Information Systems reported today.
In March, 36.6 percent of the San Diego County homes that resold had been foreclosed on at some point in the prior year, DataQuick reported.
From DataQuick’s release about the Southern California housing markets:
In recent months, foreclosure resales typically sold for about 15 percent less than other homes in the surrounding area. When these foreclosure resales dominate a market, accounting for more than half of all sales, they tend to tug home prices down by an extra 5 to 10 percent when compared with communities where foreclosure resales are less common.
The most recent Case-Shiller index, for January, showed that prices for resale detached homes were about 17 percent lower than they were in the January 2007 index. It was the lowest reading for the index since March 2004. Here’s a reminder of the differences between the Case-Shiller and DataQuick measures of the housing market.
The next Case-Shiller index will be the February edition and will be released on April 29.