Mixed Housing News for Bay Area

Overall, the number of homes that were in some stage of foreclosure here in the Bay Area fell by almost 5 percent last year.

Realtytrac.com shows a 4.7 percent decrease from 2009.

This is good news concerning the 4-year-long foreclosure crisis, but it's a mixed message for two reasons.

First, much of what happens this year depends on the trend of unemployment. If more people head back to work, the thought is more people will stay in their homes.

Secondly, the encouraging numbers don't factor a backlog of homes that are in the process of being foreclosed, or are already foreclosed and just aren't listed yet.

Regardless, Realtytrac's report shows for the month of December, about 6100 homes were in foreclosure -- that's a 25.5 percent drop from December 2009 -- but that's a 9 percent increase from November 2010.

In Santa Clara County 2,382 homes foreclosed in December (most in San Jose). That's compared to 1877 in Alameda County that foreclosed last month. There were 2561 foreclosed in San Francisco County, as well.

As far as how the Bay Area compares nationally, we are better off.
Nationally, almost 3 million homes are in some stage of foreclosure compared to a year ago. That's an unfortunate record number.


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