Fewer San Diego homes entered the foreclosure process in the first quarter of the year. That's down 5.4 percent from a year ago.
During that first quarter, 1,392 property owners got notices of default, a decrease from almost 1,471 in the first quarter a year ago.
San Diego-based Dataquick tracks the real estate market. The firm's Andrew LePage said foreclosure activity won't go away, but it is having a far smaller impact on the housing market.
"Barring a shock to the economy, we should see fewer and fewer people getting in trouble with their mortgage because fewer people are losing their jobs. More people are getting jobs," LePage said. "But there's also a pipeline of distressed properties that's quite full for some of these lenders."
Statewide, there were 19,215 notices of default in the first quarter. The low mark was recorded in the third quarter of 2004, when there were 12,417. The peak was 133,431 notices of default in the first quarter of 2009.
