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• State of the City

• 'A wonderful guy to be around'

• Jury rules no money from state

• Few details on drowning

• Vinewood principal recognized as 'Boss of the Year'

• Regional Roundup

• Foreclosure rate makes Mountain House the 'underwater' epicenter

• Four out of five: Delta College disagrees with most of state's findings

February 9th, 2010

• Middle College High School rated one of the best — and a bargain, to boot

• Lodi decathlon boasts top team in county

• Man who sparked counterfeit case pleads guilty

• Local businessman will visit Haiti to look for family

• Man who claimed to be Yosemite Sam pleads guilty to meth charge

• David Harmer seeks Republican congressional nod

• Lack of evidence in case against suspect in 'drug deal' stabbing

• Regional Roundup

February 8th, 2010

• Public Meetings

• Locals pick best, most memorable Super Bowl commercials

• Regional Roundup

February 6th, 2010

• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch

• Meet Larry, Curly and Moe

• Baboon business

• Regional Roundup

• Several Lodi venues let you watch the Super Bowl in style

• Lodi Library celebrates 100 years of serving the community

• Culinary craft

February 5th, 2010

• Kids, teachers help Haiti by collecting pennies for Learning Link

• Lodi, Galt students reach out to help Haiti earthquake survivors

• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam

• Hours of sweat and work go into putting on crab feeds

• Things looking up for state's real estate

• Correction

• Regional Roundup

• Stray bullet strikes Lodi home; police suspect gang activity may be factor

February 4th, 2010

• Managers at Geweke Toyota answer questions about recall

• Lodi City Council votes to replace play structure at Century Park

• Lodi extends ban on pot shops for another year

• Mokelumne River triathlon set for June

• Family, friends to run half-marathon in memory of Galt family

February 3rd, 2010

• Correction

• Delta College trustees again collide over stipend committee

• Bad bugs, weeds are hot topics at Grape Day

• Lodi-area senators Dave Cox, Lois Wolk admit to gifts; Tom Berryhill case pending

• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts

• Galt City Council avoids budget cuts — for now

• New Lodi Memorial Hospital emergency room opens to the public without a hitch

• Regional Roundup

February 2nd, 2010

• Local business leaders say tourism, Costco, Home Depot may play roles in city's future

• Correction

• Former Lodian Erica Davis is first paraplegic woman to summit Kilimanjaro

• Regional Roundup

• No snow leopards, otters for Micke Grove

• McNerney leads in campaign cash

• Police: Train victim was a Lodi teen

• Big rig plows 7 cars

• Jumpers across California

The following stories have received the most reader comments during the last 7 days.

• Will terrorists be given Miranda warnings? (75)
• Lodi Unified School District president issues warning to speakers over cuts (64)
• President Obama's first year (45)
• Many reject the politics of 'no' (45)
• Islamic symbol in mosaic — what is all the fuss? (44)
• Writer comments on Neely column (42)
• The Home Depot hopes to join Costco at Reynolds Ranch (41)
• Time to shed the convenient sham of 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy (34)
• We need to conduct respectful conversations (30)
• Tasered suspect claims he is Yosemite Sam (25)

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Foreclosure rate makes Mountain House the 'underwater' epicenter

Stockton claims the most foreclosures in the nation, but it's the unincorporated town to its southwest that holds the highest number of homes worth far less than the loans that paid for them.

Mountain House is awash with properties devalued into negative equity, according to real estate analysts at First American CoreLogic. In fact, a recent report shows that the town of 8,000 has the nation's highest per-capita rate of what the industry calls "underwater" mortgages — loans that are more than the home's assessed value.

Nationwide, 7.6 million homeowners, as of the end of September, are underwater. Add another 2.1 million inching closer, and the number nears a quarter of all homeowners in the country, based on the same study.

Of the 1,856 mortgages in the 95391 ZIP code — which encompasses Mountain House and a few outlying properties — only 209 homeowners owe less on their mortgages than their home is worth.

Anne Goodrich and her husband, Darren Clark, both 37, are among the 90 percent of the town's homeowners whose loans are more expensive than their property's assessed value.

The two bought their four-bedroom tract home for $400,000 nearly 41/2 years ago, at the height of the market. Today, Goodrich said she would rather forget that her home is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000.

But the news is less dire than it seems, several residents said. Homeowners like Goodrich stuck with negative equity will not necessarily opt to sell at a loss or let the property lapse into foreclosure.

The median household income in the planned community is close to $90,000. That's nearly double the state median and higher than Tracy's $80,000 average family income.

Many who call the bedroom community home can afford to wait out the economic slump, said Andy Su, a local physician and newly elected Mountain House Community Services District board member.

"I think the future of the town is fine," Su said. "Markets are cyclical."

Matthew Balzarini, another top vote-getter in the election for the town's inaugural governing board, added that it's misleading to compare Mountain House to other towns.

"It's not like other cities," he said. "This is not a Mountain House issue. This is partly just that people all bought around the same time, five years ago, when the market was strong. And that's when everyone moved here. That's how young the town is."

Other cities have enough variance in the real estate market to balance the statistics, he pointed out.

Even though Goodrich and Clark owe more than what they signed up for, the couple plans to keep the house. Just because the family dipped into equity and bought on the high end of a since-plummeted market doesn't mean they'll walk away.

"We're going to hang on," said Goodrich, a Bethany Elementary School teacher. "We're just saving like mad right now for when the payment doubles."

That happens in June next year, when her five-year adjustable-rate monthly mortgage payment will jump from $1,300 to twice that.

"Right now, we're more worried about saving the house than saving for our children's college," she said. "We'll go back to the bank when the loan resets."

Recent homebuyers feel the stress, too, but to a lesser extent, because they have less to lose.

Dublin adult school teacher Renmani Kapadia, 29, moved into a four-bedroom Mountain House home in June with her husband, Arif Kapadia, 35. The two bought the place for $298,000, and already the market has undermined that value by another $30,000 or so.

"But it's OK," said the mother of one with another on the way. "All these foreclosures up and down the block, they allowed younger people to enter the market who otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford it."

She said she's actually grateful for the circumstances and plans to live in her new home for several years. At least, she hopes, until "this all blows over."