America’s Most Distressed Housing Markets

August 22 2008 - During the recent real estate run-up, flippers who bought and sold homes within a year often reaped great profits.

Today, you still see a lot of flipping, only buying and selling within a year often results in staggering losses.

Who is suffering? Regular homeowners, speculators and the foreclosed upon who try to get out of loans they can’t afford or properties worth less than the value of their mortgages.

Hardest-hit are those in Las Vegas, Sacramento, Calif., and Los Angeles. There, more than half of last quarter’s sales were for a loss, and as much as 20% of overall sales were by people who had lived in their homes for less than a year.

10. San Francisco, California
Homes sold for a loss: 48%
Sold within year of last sale: 19.5%

9. Los Angeles, California
Homes sold for a loss: 51.1%
Sold within year of last sale: 20.8%

8. Phoenix, Arizona
Homes sold for a loss: 52.1%
Sold within year of last sale: 21.4%

7. Memphis, Tennessee
Homes sold for a loss: 43.8%
Sold within year of last sale: 29.4%

6. San Diego, California
Homes sold for a loss: 54.4%
Sold within year of last sale: 24.5%

5. Detroit, Michigan
Homes sold for a loss: 56.4%
Sold within year of last sale: 23.7%

4. Denver, Colorado
Homes sold for a loss: 42.3%
Sold within year of last sale: 37.3%

3. Riverside, California
Homes sold for a loss: 65.1%
Sold within year of last sale: 27.7%

2. Sacramento, California
Homes sold for a loss: 63.8%
Sold within year of last sale: 30.8%

1. Las Vegas, Nevada
Homes sold for a loss: 69%
Sold within year of last sale: 30.5%

Real Estate: America’s Most Distressed Housing Markets
by Matt Woolsey | Forbes