Matt linked to my post on Tuesday about the sad state of imploding Sunbelt cities like Phoenix. A commenter at his site argued that the problems Matt and I described were not Sunbelt phenomenon, but were limited to places absorbing overflow from California’s super pricey markets. Not quite. Over at Angry Bear, rdan links to a Forbes piece showing that the foreclosure mess has hit plenty of other Sunbelt areas as well, including Nevada and Colorado, Florida and Georgia. (Also the Midwest, but that’s a slightly different economic situation).

To be really accurate about all this, however, one should say that’s it not a Sunbelt thing, it’s an exurb thing. There aren’t really any metropolitan areas in the country that have been immune to these housing problems (although the Pacific Northwest and Charlotte have come close), but within just about every city, the problems are focused on the outer edges. This isn’t surprising. Families forced to the outer edges of cities are the most financially marginal, and they’re also those whose budgets are most affected by rising energy costs.