Arguably the most influential television news magazine, 60 Minutes, last night spent more than 15 minutes — an eternity in television — focusing on the so-called Subprime Meltdown. The town they chose to use as a backdrop not surprisingly was Stockton, Calif., which ranked No. 1 in terms of nationwide metro foreclosure rates in both the third quarter and November, according to RealtyTrac.

Much of the 60 Minutes piece stuck with the standard storyline: greedy lenders offered piles of money to anyone who could fog a mirror without really caring if the loan could or would be repaid. That's because the lenders could easily turn around and sell the loans to greedy Wall Street firms who wrapped up the loans in pretty packages and sold them to investors.

However, to their credit, the producers of the piece also included one contributing factor to the unfolding debacle that is not emphasized much in the media: the greed of the homeowners and investors who took advantage of these loans, and the ability of many of those people to walk away from the properties without feeling much immediate pain in their pocketbooks. That's because many of these buyers took out 100 percent financing, so the only money they've shelled out for the property is the monthly mortgage payments — which of course they have stopped paying if they are now in foreclosure. View video.

RealtyTrac will be releasing its December, fourth-quarter and year-end numbers tomorrow morning, and we'll have the full details posted on this blog immediately when they are released (5 a.m. EST, 2 a.m. PST). But for now, here's a little taste of what to expect from Stockton. Below is a map showing fourth-quarter foreclosure filings in the area, broken down by type of filing. We'd like to hear from folks in and around Stockton about whether this represents what they're seeing in the area. And if you'd like a similar map of your area, submit your request via comment and we'll try to provide it for you.