With foreclosure rates soaring across both the state and the nation, the Central Coast has not been immune to defaults and lender takeovers.

Santa Maria and Orcutt have been worst hit by the housing crunch, as the duo have seen almost twice as many foreclosures as regular home sales since the beginning of 2008.

Former Santa Maria Association of Realtors president Teri Parker said 811 bank-owned properties in the Santa Maria-Orcutt area foreclosed with a median price of $236,000, compared to the 458 regular property transactions, which carried a median price of $324,225.

Parker added that over the last month, 81 bank-owned properties have foreclosed with a median price of $213,000 – only $109,000 less than the median price of the 34 regular property transactions that closed in that time period.

Although foreclosures across the Central Coast are up compared to last year, the region is by no means the worst-hit in the Golden State, according to data from the California Association of Realtors and other real estate tracking outfits.

Records from Irvine-based RealtyTrac, an online publisher of foreclosure market data, show a 6 percent jump in California’s foreclosure activity last month, with 60,491 filings – a 51 percent increase from a year ago.

California now ranks fourth in the nation in number of filings, with 796,659 foreclosure filings and 410,877 foreclosed properties during 2008.

Statewide, that breaks down to approximately one foreclosure in every 224 housing units. San Luis Obispo County numbers show one foreclosure for every 418 housing units, about half the state’s foreclosure activity rate. That’s the good news.

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