As the nation’s largest home lenders continue their self-imposed foreclosure freezes, economists in the tri-county region say the residential real estate market’s search for the bottom is being delayed.

The Tri-Counties had more than 1,200 homes in foreclosure at the end of the second quarter, according to information from research firm DataQuick. That’s up more than 5,900 percent since the second quarter of 2005, when the region had just 21 homes in foreclosure.

“If foreclosures drop soon, they are likely to rise again later once the freeze is lifted.  When that happens, residential real estate markets will sink again and local California economies will slow again,” California Lutheran University economist Dan Hamilton said in an e-mail to the Business Times.

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