SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A forecast released Friday has predicted that 1 million homes will be in foreclosure nationwide by the end of the year.

California and the Central Valley will be and has been hit especially hard, NBC11's Mike Luery reported.

In many neighborhoods, bank-ownership signs and overgrown weeds now dot the landscape, NBC11's Mike Luery reported.

Terry Towne is going through tough times. The home he bought had been valued at $565,000 just three years ago. Now it is worth less than $300,000, Luery reported.

Towne said his mortgage payments have grown by $900 a month, forcing him, his wife, and his three children to move out.

"I told the two oldest ones, they asked 'Why are we moving?,' and I said 'Because mommy and daddy can't afford to pay for this house anymore.' It's just costing too much money."

Terry is not alone. His real estate agent Jacque McBurney has 23 "distressed properties" she is trying to sell.

"These guys have put money down and they've lost all their savings for a down payment to get into a dream home and now their dream home is gone," she said.

Nationwide, 500,000 Americans lost their homes to foreclosure in the first half of the year. That is six out of every 1,000 houses repossessed by a bank, according to the president of Foreclosures.com, Alexis McGee. The California company is a real estate tracking service.

"So I don't think it's a long shot to say we're going to be hitting a million by the end of the year," McGee said.

McGee's foreclosure newsletter has 100,000 monthly readers. Her July forecast is that the housing market has bottomed out.

"If you're watching what's happening on the stock market, they're telling us the worst is behind us," she said.

Many properties near Towne's home may look unsightly, with overgrown weeds, they could present an opportunity for future homeowners.

With interest rates are at a 30-year low and with so many bank-owned properties, many bargains are starting to pop up, Luery reported.