Les Jones

Mortgage Crisis > 2007 U.S. Home Foreclosures by State and County

Predictably, the foreclosure rates in California and Florida are considerable, along with Arizona and certain metropolitan areas such as Detroit, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, and Houston.

What surprises me is all of the foreclosures in Tennessee. The Tennessee foreclosure rates aren't as intense as in those states and cities above, but the foreclosure phenomenon seems to be spread throughout the entire state such that Tennessee looks like it was colored in with a bucket of orange paint. From The Atlantic:

Not least, the crisis is harming the neighbors of people in foreclosure, even those who aren’t having trouble making loan payments. According to one academic study, every foreclosure reduces the value of all other houses within an eighth of a mile by about 1 percent, as the sight of vacant property scares off potential buyers. Combine that with a market already in decline, and neighborhoods that begin to have troubles can go off the cliff. On the street pictured, three houses not in foreclosure have been languishing on the market for 72, 97, and 149 days; asking prices along the cul-de-sac vary widely, but average about $40,000 less than the comparable prices in the first two quarters of the year.