The number of Los Angeles County homes slipping toward foreclosure dropped by 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2012, compared to the same period last year, a real estate information service reported today.

In the first quarter of 2012 the numbers of homes slipping toward foreclosure dropped by 18 percent.

Lenders sent default notices to 10,568 homeowners in Los Angeles County in the second quarter, down from the 2011 second-quarter total of 11,250, according to San Diego-based DataQuick.

Andrew LePage, spokesperson with DataQuick couldn’t provide specific data for Baldwin Park, but according to RealtyTrac website, there are more than 154 homes in foreclosure as of Monday.

This number is down from the 600 houses that were listed as foreclosure in Baldwin Park last May.   

In Orange County, default notices were sent to 3,599 homeowners, down 2.9 percent from the 2011 second-quarter total of 3,705.

Statewide, default notices were sent to 54,615 homeowners in the second quarter of the year, DataQuick reported. That was a 2.9 percent drop from the previous quarter’s 56,258 notices and down 3.6 percent from the second quarter in 2011, when 56,633 default notices were sent.

“The foreclosure process has always been the sanitation department of the housing sector,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. “It’s where financial distress is processed. The question is whether these lower (default notice) numbers mean that there’s less distress to process, or if we’re just seeing distress get processed at a slower pace.”

Default notices do not always lead to a home foreclosure, according to DataQuick. Some homeowners emerge from the foreclosure process by bringing their payments current, refinancing or selling the home.

With information from City News Service

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