At year-end 2009, the Golden State had 18 statistical metro areas where unemployment exceeded 10 percent -- with nine of its cities in the bottom 14 in employment, according to the USBLS. In the hard-hit region surrounding Ontario, San Bernardino and Riverside, home values spiked from around $300,000 pre-boom to $800,000-plus at the market's zenith. When the bust hit, jobs were whacked quickly along with home values.
Pamela Haile, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Gonella Realty in hard-hit Merced, Calif. -- the top foreclosure city in the country -- says, "We had a lot of lender fraud going on with non-English speaking residents. They were rushed through with lenders who added income to their applications and lied to buyers that it was legal." In Merced, one in every 83 homes received a foreclosure filing in November. "Builders were manufacturing homes using an assembly line (in the area)," explains Julie Jalone of Roseville, Calif.-based MagnumOne Realty. "These homes were sold, sometimes in lottery style, before they were even built." Consequently, she says, owners with mortgages higher than the purchase price came to represent a large portion of the market.
Related:
Losing Home in Foreclosure Won't end Worry
Study: Millions Not Paying Their Mortgages
Lessons From the Crash
What Can You get at Median Price? (REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi)