by Calculated Risk on 5/15/2008 09:20:00 AM

A "Foreclosure Magazine" arrived on my doorstep yesterday. There were close to 200 homes offered for sale as distressed properties, mostly in Orange County, CA with some in the Inland Empire.

Although most of the listing in Orange County are in the $400 to $800 thousand range, there are a number of higher end homes. For example:
Huntington Harbor Pre-Foreclosure (on the water), $1,750,000
Irvine, Giant 5 BD View Home, "Beat the Bank", $1,199,000
Corona, 5 BD Gated, Views, Bank Owned, $999,999
Orange, Custom Home, Gated Community, Short Sale, $1,875,000

It appears foreclosures are moving up the housing chain ...

From the WaPo: Luxury Foreclosures

The foreclosure signs that have been sprouting up in less-affluent communities since 2006 are beginning to appear in the well-off suburbs, attached to houses that once cost $1 million or more. Although those kinds of homes are in the minority now, real estate agents predict the numbers will swell.

In Loudoun County, 60 houses priced over $750,000 are among the 932 foreclosures and short sales -- an exit strategy of selling the house at a loss with the bank's blessing to avoid foreclosure.

Affluent neighborhoods have been able to stave off foreclosure longer, but the effects of once-popular loans, such as adjustable-rate and interest-only mortgages, are beginning to take their toll, economists and real estate agents said.