Where the Foreclosure Crisis Hit Hardest: Small Town, USA

By Les Christie for CNNMoney

NEW YORK -- The housing collapse has dramatically changed the nation's foreclosure landscape.

Neighborhoods boasting modern homes, cul-de-sacs and tree-lined streets in and around Western cities now dominate the list of the top 100 U.S. ZIP Codes hit hardest by foreclosures, and claim and comprise all of the top 10 spots, according to data generated for CNNMoney by RealtyTrac. In 2011, Western states claimed 82 of the 100 worst hit ZIP Codes with 38 in California and another 28 in Nevada.

That's quite a departure from when CNNMoney first looked at the top foreclosure ZIP Codes in June 2007. Back then, the auto industry's ills had turned neighborhoods in Detroit, Cleveland and Indianapolis into foreclosure ground zero, with the three cities claiming 25 of the nation's 100 hardest hit neighborhoods.