Menifee is a Foreclosure Hot Spot of the USA

John Occhi, a Realtor in Hemet, writes a blog on the ActiveRain blog network and this week he published a list of the top 500 zip codes in the United States with the most foreclosure filings.

Menifee (92584) came in ranked at #253, with 217 filings in 2006.

You can see the full chart he prepared at this link...
http://activerain.com/blogsview/132444/Hemet-two-of-138

Being at #253 put's our town right in the middle of the pack. But before you consider that average, keep in mind this is a list of the top 500 worst zip codes. There are approximately 43,000 zip codes total in the USA. That puts Menifee in the top 1% of the country in foreclosures.

Among all the South West Riverside County zip codes, Murrieta's 92563 ranks #22, the worst in SW County, with 465 filings.

That's followed by Murrieta's 92562, ranking at #55, with 358 filings, and Temecula's 92592, at #70.

Perris (92571) at #97, then Menifee (92584) at #253, then Lake Elsinore (92530) at #258, Hemet (92544) at #313, and Hemet (92545) at #396, rounds out the rest of SW County's top 500 representatives.

One observation I have to add is that Murrieta and Temecula's zip codes rank much higher than other SW County cities in foreclosures. Why is that? First of all, people buying homes in SW County come here for the affordable housing, so right off the bat they have tight finances to begin with. But instead of buying a home in Menifee, Hemet, Lake Elsinore, or Perris, they opted to spend a little more in buying a home in Murrieta and Temecula.

I presume they were attracted by the abundance of shopping and dining, as well as the higher quality schools, and probably the slightly shorter commutes into San Diego County. But as the foreclosure data shows, taking on a higher mortgage payment to get a little bit of luxury was a bad decision.

How does this foreclosure data affect our home values?

I'm not a real estate expert, so I can't really speak from knowledge. But I do know that banks tend to sell foreclosed properties at prices much lower than typical home sellers. If you're selling your home at $400,000, and a bank is selling a foreclosed home just like yours, on the same block, for $375,000, it's going to drag the market value down.

Any real estate professionals out there care to comment?