Foreclosures Top 40 Percent of Local Sales

Published: Monday, August 18, 2008 12:07 PM PDT

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Nearly 41 percent of the homes sold in the county last month had been foreclosed at some point in the previous 12 months, DataQuick Information Systems reported this morning.

That was up from 38.7 percent in June. Only 11.6 percent of the sales in July last year were such sales.

In neighboring Riverside County, foreclosure resales counted for 64 percent of all sales in July.

In a press release, John Walsh, DataQuick's president, labeled the housing news across Southern California a "fire sale of properties" purchased or refinanced near the peak of the market using "lousy mortgages."

The increased appetite for discounted homes bumped the San Diego County sales totals positive in July. All homes sold in July totaled 3,431, a 10.5 percent increase over July's sales total a year ago. The categories of resale houses and resale condos each saw sales volume increases of more than 20 percent.

The price pressure from foreclosure sales pushed the median price among all homes sold down to $364,000 -- a 25.6 percent year-over-year drop and a 29.7 percent drop from the November 2005 peak.