Talking Apple in the land of foreclosures

One year after earning the dubious honor of ranking among the cities most hit by real estate foreclosures, times are still rough in Modesto, Calif., where the real estate crash was among the worst in the country.

Apple chose Modesto as the site of its 250th retail store in the U.S. last fall--just as the 2008-2009 recession started to hit, fueled by the collapse of the real estate market. Yet as Apple continues to flourish, Modesto is struggling with unemployment and crime.

Apple did decide in early 2009 to limit the pace of its retail expansion, but that brief pause ended in October. New Apple stores are planned throughout the country, and another gleaming New York store opened in November.

Back in Modesto, however, foreclosures continue to plague the local economy as unemployment remains high. The unemployment rate in Stanislaus County, where Modesto is the county seat, came in at 16.6 percent in October 2009, well above the state average of 12.5 percent and national average of 10.2 percent. Likewise, Modesto ranked third in the number of foreclosures among cities with 200,000 or more residents in October, behind Las Vegas and Vallejo-Fairfield, Calif.

Read the original story: "Talking Apple in the land of foreclosures"

--Caption by Tom Krazit