California Cities Fill Top 10 Foreclosure List
Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Christine Romans reports on the mortgage market concerns that are roiling the credit and stock markets and what it means
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"While foreclosure activity has skyrocketed over the past year in many cities, particularly in California, Ohio and the Northeast," James Saccaccio, RealtyTrac's chief executive, said in a statement, "foreclosure activity seems to be subsiding in parts of Texas, South Carolina and other states."
"Still," he said, "the overall trend is toward escalating foreclosure rates, with 82 of the top 100 metro areas reporting year-over-year increases in the number of homes affected by foreclosure."
Stockton, California now leads the nation in foreclosures. Of RealtyTrac's top 10 metro areas for foreclosures, four are in Central California.
Coastal California cities are doing relatively well, although foreclosures are up there too. San Francisco had one foreclosure for every 263 households, a fairly low rate, but up 83 percent from the first six months of 2006.
Stockton city drew thousands of home buyers to the Central Valley area from the prohibitively expensive Bay-area markets during the housing boom and saw home prices nearly double in the four years ended December 31, 2005, according to the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight.
The most ruthless foreclosure states
Because of California's outsized home prices, option and hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) interest-only loans became widespread. They enabled home buyers to get into properties they could not otherwise afford.
But often these loans were time bombs; hybrid ARMs, for example, reset to much higher rates - and payments - after the first two or three years of low fixed rates.
Many buyers were also approved for expensive mortgages based on applications in which income or assets went unproven, the so-called no- or low-doc loans, AKA "liar loans."
Lenders underwrote mortgages for these borrowers based on their income or asset claims without proof and many times the claims were exaggerated. When hard times hit, these borrowers had fewer resources to fall back on than the lenders anticipated and foreclosures followed.
Mortgage meltdown contagion
Seven of the nation's top 10 metro areas are in the Sun Belt. Only three are in economically hard-hit areas, historically the kinds of places that once produced the highest rates of foreclosure filings.
Stockton recorded one foreclosure filing for every 27 households during the six months ended June 30, a 256 percent increase compared with the first six months of 2006.
Number two in the nation was Detroit, where job losses in the auto industry drove foreclosures higher. One of every 29 households recorded a foreclosure filing there, almost double the rate of a year ago. Las Vegas (one of 31, up 142 percent) was third.
The other California cities in the top 10 were Riverside/San Bernardino (one in 33, up 198 percent), Sacramento (one in 36, up 231 percent) and Bakersfield (one in 47, up 222 percent).
The lowest foreclosure rate recorded by RealtyTrac among the 100 metro areas surveyed was in Richmond, Virginia. It had just one for every 2,319 households, about the same as a year ago and a rate barely more than 1 percent of Stockton's.
Other low foreclosure metro areas included Greenville, South Carolina (one in 1,721, down 66 percent), McAllen, Texas (one in 1,494, down 35 percent) and Honolulu (one in 1,151, up 68 percent).
Foreclosure rates for top 100 metro areas.
Rate Rank MSA Foreclosure Filings 1 filing for every #HH %Δ from First Half 2006
1 STOCKTON, CA 8,169 27 256
2 DETROIT/LIVONIA/DEARBORN, MI 28,705 29 99
3 LAS VEGAS/PARADISE, NV 22,928 31 142
4 RIVERSIDE/SAN BERNARDINO, CA 41,351 33 198
5 SACRAMENTO, CA 20,516 36 241
6 DENVER/AURORA, CO 23,842 42 11
7 MIAMI, FL 20,275 46 74
8 BAKERSFIELD, CA 5,365 47 222
9 MEMPHIS, TN 10,800 49 17
10 CLEVELAND/LORAIN/ELYRIA/MENTOR, OH 18,844 50 106
11 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL 15,720 50 72
12 ATLANTA/SANDY SPRINGS/MARIETTA, GA 36,502 54 17
13 FORT WORTH/ARLINGTON, TX 13,221 57 -10
14 FRESNO, CA 4,867 60 183
15 INDIANAPOLIS, IN 11,677 62 -6
16 DAYTON, OH 5,966 63 96
17 DALLAS, TX 23,284 65 -15
18 AKRON, OH 4,378 70 85
19 OAKLAND, CA 13,482 70 152
20 COLUMBUS, OH 10,706 70 85
21 JACKSONVILLE, FL 7,513 73 20
22 PHOENIX/MESA, AZ 21,378 74 139
23 SAN DIEGO, CA 14,859 75 164
24 TAMPA/ST PETERSBURGH/CLEARWATER, FL 15,905 79 68
25 WARREN/FARMINGTON HILLS/TROY, MI 13,093 80 92
26 TOLEDO, OH 3,530 84 47
27 VENTURA, CA 3,100 86 183
28 NEWHAVEN/MILFORD, CT 4,017 86 547
29 LOS ANGELES/LONG BEACH, CA 38,199 87 125
30 CHICAGO, IL 34,818 88 45
31 SARASOTA/BRADENTON/VENICE, FL 3,919 94 166
32 EDISON, NJ 9,462 98 58
33 ORLANDO, FL 8,325 98 49
34 CINCINNATI, OH 8,949 100 166
35 WORCESTER, MA 3,097 101 374
36 LAKE/KENOSHA, IL-WI 2,454 101 27
37 CAMDEN, NJ 2,761 101 56
38 CHARLOTTE/GASTONIA, NC 6,498 101 116
39 PALM BEACH, FL 6,063 102 32
40 GARY, IN 2,614 108 49
41 LITTLE ROCK/NORTH LITTLE ROCK, AR 2,617 108 -39
42 KANSAS CITY, MO-KS 7,703 111 117
43 SAN ANTONIO, TX 6,409 112 -1
44 HARTFORD, CT 4,326 112 446
45 ORANGE, CA 9,012 113 153
46 AUSTIN/ROUND ROCK, TX 5,155 115 -21
47 SPRINGFIELD, MA 2,424 116 234
48 BRIDGEPORT/STAMFORD/NORWALK, CT 2,847 122 552
49 TUCSON, AZ 3,323 122 55
50 NEWARK, NJ 6,745 124 20
51 TACOMA, WA 2,427 125 23
52 HOUSTON/BAYTOWN/SUGARLAND, TX 16,057 127 1
53 ESSEX, MA 2,179 135 409
54 OKLAHOMA CITY, OK 3,660 138 -22
55 TULSA, OK 2,712 143 -12
56 SAN JOSE/SUNNYVALE/SANTA CLARA, CA 4,197 148 105
57 SUFFOLK/NASSAU, NY 6,624 150 17
58 ST LOUIS, MO-IL 8,023 151 55
59 BOSTON/QUINCY, MA 4,862 153 342
60 RALEIGH/CARY, NC 2,505 158 105
61 NASHVILLE/DAVIDSON, TN 3,788 161 31
62 LOUISVILLE, KY 3,150 169 7
63 SALT LAKE CITY, UT 2,185 172 -39
64 EL PASO, TX 1,306 187 -2
65 CAMBRIDGE/NEWTON/FRAMINGHAM, MA 3,045 193 313
66 WASHINGTON/ARLINGTON/ALEXANDRIA, DC-VA-MD 8,483 195 430
67 PHILADALPHIA, PA 8,086 198 2
68 ALBUQUERQUE, NM 1,635 208 -38
69 ROCHESTER, NY 2,041 215 208
70 GREENSBORO/HIGHPOINT, NC 1,336 225 75
71 BIRMINGHAM/HOOVER, AL 1,986 227 157
72 OMAHA/COUNCIL BLUFFS, NE-IA 1,480 229 158
73 MILWAUKEE/WAUKESHA/WST ALLIS, WI 2,782 231 22
74 SCRANTON/WILKES/BARRE/HAZLETON, PA 1,076 239 110
75 MINNEAPOLIS/ST PAUL/BLOOMINGTON, MN 5,270 245 201
76 SEATTLE/BELLEVUE/EVERETT, WA 4,302 246 7
77 KNOXVILLE, TN 1,211 246 9
78 SAN FRANCISCO, CA 2,765 263 83
79 NEW ORLEANS, LA 2,178 267 610
80 PITTSBURGH, PA 3,917 281 -22
81 PROVIDENCE/NEW BEDFORD, RI 1,489 301 473
82 NEW YORK/WAYNE/WHITE PLAINS, NY 14,300 305 47
83 BUFFALO/CHEEKTOWAGA/TONAWANDA, NY 1,565 332 76
84 PORTLAND/VANCOUVER/BEAVERTON, OR 2,426 353 7
85 BETHESDA/FREDERICK/GAITHERSBURG, MD 1,196 368 581
86 BALTIMORE/TOWSON, MD 2,816 387 275
87 WICHITA, KS 633 399 0
88 POUGHKEEPSIE/NEWBURGH/MIDDLETOWN, NY 566 428 2
89 ALBANY/SCHENECTADY/TROY, NY 690 544 82
90 CHARLESTON, SC 483 547 -23
91 WILMINGTON, DE 469 588 108
92 SYRACUSE, NY 441 643 3
93 BATON ROUGE, LA 456 668 265
94 ALLENTOWN/BETHLEHEM/EASTON, PA 403 756 34
95 COLUMBIA, SC 392 757 -49
96 NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH/NEWPORT NEWS, VA 747 787 191
97 HONOLULU, HI 286 1,151 68
98 MCALLEN/EDINBURG/PHARR, TX 155 1,494 -35
99 GREENVILLE, SC 151 1,721 -66
100 RICHMOND, VA 213 2,319 -1