Foreclosure Capitals: Is Your City Next?

As reported by Forbes - "America's Next Foreclosure Capitals":

The number of homeowners dealing with foreclosure is mounting. Nationwide, almost 766,000 homes received at least one foreclosure-related notice from July through September, according to Realty Trac. That's up 71% compared to the same time a year before.

Expect foreclosures to jump even more in Florida:

Expect already high foreclosure rates in Jacksonville, Naples and Miami to increase by 14% to 15% next year thanks to bottomless home prices and job loss.

"It's so far from recovery," says Doug Duncan, chief economist of Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ). He says the ability to sell a home in the Sunshine State is not related to price, especially in the condo sector. "You can drop the price to zero and not sell a brand new property because there's no one there to buy it."

Bad in California too but, perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel:

It's not much better in California, home to five of the top 10 cities on our list, including Fresno, Santa Cruz, Merced and Santa Barbara. Here, foreclosures are expected to rise between 11% and 14% next year. Job growth figures are better than in Florida, and new housing permits have begun to bottom out, cutting into supply. Even though prices are down, transaction activity has surged 17% in San Diego, 21% in Los Angeles and 32% in Sacramento from last year, according to Radar Logic, a New York-based research firm.

"We're starting to see signs of a bottom in some places in California," says Scott Hoyt, a senior director of consumer economics at Moody's (nyse: MCO - news - people ) Economy.com. "Those places were the first places to crash. Now they're further into the foreclosure cycle. It looks like permit activity is starting to bottom out."

The Forbes foreclosure capital list - (full article and the data behind this list):

1. Jacksonville, FL
   
2. Fresno, CA
   
3. Naples, FL
4. Miami, FL
5. Orlando, FL
6. Santa Cruz, CA
   
7. Merced, CA
8. Oxnard, CA
9. Deltona, FL
10. Santa Barbara, CA

For now, the cries will continue ... when will this disastrous housing market ever find a bottom?