Low Cost Areas Hit the Hardest by Foreclosures; Nestor, Paradise Hills & San Ysidro Top the List

As the rising wave of defaults and foreclosures sweeps like a tsunami over San Diego and the rest of the nation, virtually every neighborhood is being affected, according to a new report from DataQuick Information System.

But the impact – to no one's surprise – falls greatest on the areas favored by first-time buyers.
“Entry-level buyers and low-cost areas are generally stretching their finances more and they used these subprime mortgages more frequently than buyers and refinancings of higher-priced areas did,” said DataQuick analyst John Karevoll.

Based on county ZIP code areas with at least 20 sales from July through September, 43 had a higher ratio of sales to defaults than the 1.47 county average and 38 had a lower ratio. Overall, there were 8,362 sales and 5,673 default notices in the third quarter in the county.

The top 10 ZIPs had ratios as high as nine sales for every one default. But Coronado, Carmel Valley and Rancho Santa Fe, among the county's highest-priced areas, each still had a handful for defaults and foreclosures.

The bottom 10 had as many as three times more defaults than sales. The lowest three – San Ysidro, Paradise Hills and Nestor – also have some of the lowest median prices in the county.
Nestor, the south San Diego city neighborhood at Interstate 5 and Palm Avenue, had 79 sales with a median value of $416,000 in the third quarter, but 221 default notices, resulting in the lowest ratio of sales to defaults of any ZIP code area.
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