A SMALL 1950s bungalow in Stockton, California, is up for sale for $US169,950 ($194,700). Sitting off a quiet road dotted with US flags, the Funston Avenue home has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a covered porch.
It was built as part of President Truman's Fair Deal, a federal promise to guarantee economic opportunity and housing for servicemen returning from the war.
Sixty years on, however, the American Dream has turned into a nightmare.
The bungalow's value has fallen $US110,000 in two years and the family who live in it have fallen so far behind with their rising mortgage repayments that the bank has foreclosed.
This family's story is a common one in the neighbourhood, which houses bank workers and civil servants who zoom up Interstate 5 to commute to and from the pricier city of San Francisco.
According to David Sousa, the real estate broker who is selling the house, the number of properties up for sale in the area has risen from about 1800 two years ago to about 8000 now.
Most of those properties are in the process of being repossessed by mortgage lenders. And there is no sign that the residents of Stockton are past the worst. Their lot seems a far cry from the town's sunny motto: "Stockton's Great, Take a Look!"
Stockton is one of the US foreclosure capitals, according to RealtyTrac. In November, 1 in 31 households had entered the foreclosure process. "The number of foreclosures has left the market saturated with unsold property," Sousa says. He estimates that prices were falling at "between half and 1 per cent a month" and says lenders have been so overwhelmed by the number of repossessed homes on their books that estate agents couldn't get a decision from them for at least 30 days over whether they would accept an offer price.
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