Foreclosures dipped slightly in Sonoma County during the fourth quarter, but the outlook remains bleak for a quick end to the housing crisis.
The number of borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure dropped for the first time in a year, falling nearly 8 percent from the third quarter to 541 homes, according to figures released Wednesday by San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
Meanwhile, the number of borrowers who fell behind on their mortgages declined for the second straight quarter. Lenders issued default notices to 878 borrowers, a decline of 32 percent from the third quarter.
Even so, analysts, foreclosure counselors and others cautioned that they aren’t seeing a drop in the overall numbers of homeowners in danger of losing their homes.
“We seem to get new clients constantly, and the old ones aren’t going away,” said Linda Hedstrom, a manager who oversees a homeowner counseling program at California Human Development Corporation in Santa Rosa.
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– Robert Digitale