According to a poll the San Francisco Chronicle recently held, the mortgage meltdown topped the list of the most important news of the year for the Bay Area.

Out of the 2,456 readers who responded to the poll, 795 of those readers voted the mortgage crisis as the top story. Unfittingly enough the poll was released 24 hours before a tiger escaped from the San Francisco Zoo, which may have impacted the way readers voted.

Investors played a big role in the rising number of foreclosure in the Bay Area. One out of every five homes foreclosed on were owned by investors. Most of these homes that were purchased by investors were purchased without any sort of down payment.

With the availability of sub-prime mortgage loans, many residents in the Bay Area decided it was time to get their piece of the American pie. When the real estate and financing markets took a turn for the worse at the beginning of the year, many homeowners found themselves upside down in a home they couldn’t afford.

It really isn’t a surprise that the mortgage crisis topped the list with the country nearing recession and the rate of homes in foreclosure or default setting records for just about every state and even spreading into other countries.

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