Light at the end of the foreclosure tunnel, according to Bloomberg News.

California led the U.S. into the worst housing recession since the 1930s. Now the most populous state may be the first to find the bottom.

 In Stockton, the U.S. metro area with the highest foreclosure rate, home sales more than doubled in the second quarter after prices fell by an average 37 percent, said PMZ Real Estate Corp., the area’s largest broker. Across the state, sales rose for three consecutive months starting in April after 30 straight months of declines, the California Association of Realtors said. About 40 percent of those transactions were foreclosure sales, DataQuick Information Systems reported.

“California is having a wrenching decline in wealth, but this is a cathartic event that will lay the foundation for a recovery,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in an interview. “This signals the beginning of the end.”

Only time will tell, and this month’s housing report from DataQuick should help confirm whether or not we are headed to the bottom.