Some California Cities Hit Hard by Defaults

Map of areas with highest loan defaults

In recent study by the Los Angeles Times using data received from Dataquick, Palmdale is the only city in Los Angeles County that is showing a high level of home loan defaults so far.

High on the list are many areas of Riverside County and the Sacramento area. Moreno Valley is one of the hardest hit, with 333 homes in two zip codes receiving notices of default. That's out of almost 16,000 homes in the two zip codes combined. Perris, also in Riverside County, has the highest default rate with 177 out of 9,400 homes receiving notices of default.

Here are the numbers for selected Santa Clarita areas:

Zip	City	# of Defaults	# of Homes
91321	Newhall	35	7,614
91350	Saugus	37	8,895
91354	Valencia	33	8,323
91355	Valencia	40	10,054
91381	Stevenson Ranch / Westridge	36	5,272
91384	Castaic	37	5,947
91387	Canyon Country	66	8,646

Please note that just because a homeowner has received a notice of default, it doesn't mean that the home will actually go to foreclosure. Many homeowners will either refinance or sell their homes before the bank takes over their home through the foreclosure process. And, as discussed in other sections of this blog, many of the homeowners who are in hot water are those who did cash-out refi's after the purchase of their homes, rather than those who just did 100% financing.