Poor Stockton, CA.

We saw 60 Minutes, we read all the news, everyone knows or has heard that Stockton IS the

Foreclosure Capital of the U.S.

Is that because the good people of Stockton all got together and decided to call themselves that?  No.

Maybe there was a contest, poll or election? Nope.

It was the media that planted the moniker on the city.  I always assumed it was based on raw numbers.  Maybe it was.  I can't tell.

Yesterday I was working on a project and pulled the entire current list of Notice of Default filings for the entire State of California.  It was dated Feb 5th.

As I was compiling numbers I noticed something strange.

Stockton, and it's county (San Joaquin) seemed lower than what I expected to see.

If the title wasn't bestowed upon them based on sheer numbers, maybe it was something else.

Was it Per Capita?
Per Capita would make perfect sense.  The number of foreclosures per person?  Maybe it was per household?

Stockton has an estimated 290,141 people (2006) according to CityData,
while Sacramento sits at 453,781 according to the same site.

Sacramento is slightly less than twice the size of Stockton, yet our state capital had 3 times the number of filings!

I realize this is only a one week sampling. I can pull a new list later today.

Is it just because the media thinks they are the proverbial Red Headed Step Child of the central valley?  There is a finite number of homes that can be foreclosed on.  That leads me to wonder...

Is Stockton actually running out of homes to foreclose on?

Just thinking.