According to a recent article in the Sacramento Bee, Defaults and foreclosures are skyrocketing in California.

In fact, things are getting so bad in the California housing market, that foreclosures jumped up 500% in the fourth quarter of 2007.

It doesn’t appear to be getting any better, either.

From the article:

Foreclosures and defaults soared to stratospheric levels in Sacramento and the rest of the state last year.

As the Federal Reserve made an emergency interest rate cut of three-quarters of a point Tuesday in an effort to stop a panic in global stock markets, new statistics from DataQuick Information Systems showed that California’s real estate problems continue to deepen.

Notices of default — a sign that homeowners are falling behind on payments and are in danger of foreclosure — jumped 114 percent in the fourth quarter in California to 81,550. That’s the highest level ever recorded by DataQuick, which has been tallying defaults since 1992. 

Well, by now, everyone is aware that there is quite a problem with foreclosures these days.

The people who are buying these houses aren’t buying it with money they already have.  They are relying on loans and the government to pull them out of debt.

I am sorry for anyone who is losing their home due to a loss of job or for whatever reason, but we are living in an era of credit with nothing to back it up.

I believe things will get far worse before they get better.

Maybe they have to - so Americans stop living beyond their means.