New figures from DataQuick are confirming the grim reality that many Californians are suffering under: more people are heading towards foreclosure, and a greater percentage of them end up losing their homes.

For Q2 '08, 121,341 new Notices of Default recorded in California, up 6.6% compared to the first quarter of 2008, and up 33.5% compared to Q2 '07.

Trustee's Deeds (the post-auction deed that actually removes an owner from title after foreclosure) totaled 63,061 for the quarter. That's the highest quarterly figure ever - DataQuick started tracking the figure in 1992.

But the statistic that deserves the most attention is the cure rate: it fell to a dismal 22% for the second quarter. This translates to a California homeowner in default having a nearly 4 in 5 chance of losing their home. The cure rate is down from 32% in the first quarter of 2008, and from 54.6% back in the second quarter of 2007.

The current cure rate means that a California homeowner in foreclosure will lose their home (rather than finding a way to cure their default) 78% of the time. That's nearly 5 to 1 odds against the homeowner. Truly ghastly.

At the current cure rate, 94,646 (I rounded up 94,645.98) of the 121,341 new defaults for the second quarter will end up going to auction, and most of those will end up as REOs.

Take these figures to the lender for all your short sale clients - they may not get it the first time you tell them, but it couldn't hurt.