San Diego

SoCal Sees Sales Rise, as Foreclosures Make the Market 

The old real estate mantra used to be location, location, location — but a new mantra seems to be enveloping certain markets now. Instead of the tried and true, the newest axiom might best be buy foreclosures, and shun everything else. In some of the hardest-hit local housing markets across the nation, steep discounting on bank-owned real estate and distressed mortgage sales is driving strong buying activity from consumers betting that the worst of the nation’s housing crisis — at least in terms of prices — is near some sort of end.