San Diego County pre-foreclosure

A California foreclosure shows up as two recorded notices, a Notice of Default and then a Notice of Trustee Sale, on a clock the Civil Code sets the same way in every county. The full timeline is here. This page covers what is specific to San Diego County.

Where San Diego County records the notices

San Diego County records Notices of Default and Notices of Trustee Sale through its Assessor/Recorder/County Clerk, at four offices: downtown San Diego, Chula Vista, Santee and San Marcos. The online Official Records index reaches back to 1970 but shows only the index line, not the document. The document itself is read on a public kiosk at one of those offices, or bought as a copy online, by mail or in person, at $2 for the first page and 5 cents for each page after, plus $1 to certify.

What the county tells the owner

San Diego writes to an owner when a deed, quitclaim deed, deed of trust or mortgage is recorded against their property. That letter, a “Courtesy Notice”, encloses the first three pages of the recorded document and points anyone who does not recognize it to the District Attorney’s Real Estate Fraud Unit. Owners can also enroll in Owner Alert, a free email service that watches up to 10 names and 10 parcel numbers for documents recorded after they sign up.

The housing behind the notices

In the Census Bureau’s 2020-2024 American Community Survey, San Diego County had 1,250,641 homes. The median owner-occupied home was valued at $854,700, against $557,300 in Riverside County and $505,000 in San Bernardino County in the same survey. Only 55 percent of occupied homes were lived in by their owners, the lowest share of the three, and the median home was built in 1980.

What to do differently here

Nearly half of San Diego’s occupied homes are rented, so before you call, check whether the property in the notice is the owner’s home or a rental: compare the property address with the owner’s mailing address. The online index shows only that a notice exists, so order the copy first; the first page is $2.

Sources

Last verified 2026-09-19. County offices, fees and programs change, so check the county’s own pages before you rely on a detail. General information, not legal advice.

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