Housing slump hits home in East S.J.

The wave of foreclosures sweeping Santa Clara County has hit its Latino residents the hardest, stripping many first-time buyers of their homes and sending financial shock waves through the South Bay's largest minority community.

The wave of foreclosures sweeping Santa Clara County has hit its Latino residents the hardest, stripping many first-time buyers of their homes and sending financial shock waves through the South Bay’s largest minority community.

Nearly 60 percent of the 1,429 properties in the county taken back by lenders from Jan. 1 to Nov. 15 were owned by people with Hispanic surnames, according to a Mercury News analysis of data provided by ForeclosureRadar. In San Jose, that figure was 69 percent.

Latinos comprise 26 percent of the county’s population and 32 percent of the city’s, according to census data.

The damage comes as foreclosures in the county through Nov. 15 have skyrocketed to five times the number for all of 2006, according to DataQuick, another real estate research firm.