ZIP 49038 Foreclosure, Tax-Lien & Distress Report

In Berrien County, Michigan, ZIP 49038 scores 21 of 100 for composite distress, a low level on DLRadar's public-record index. On the structural side it scores 47/100, with 2/100 of stress already active. Climate and flood risk are elevated too — climate & FEMA risk (79/100). The most distinctive pressure shows up in construction/permit lag (73/100), structural risk (47/100), institutional ownership (7/100). On the quiet end sit institutional ownership (7/100) and mortgage stress (5/100).

Prices here sit in a expansion phase: values rose 6.8% over the trailing year, and 16% higher over three years (phase confidence 44/100). Even climbing markets leave specific parcels in distress; the scoring isolates them.

The typical home is worth about $206,800 (3.3× income, relatively affordable). Rent burden reaches 41% of tenant households. Population is roughly 8,577 with a median age of 45. About 21% have a four-year degree. The ZIP holds roughly 5,123 housing units. Roughly 12.5% live below the poverty line. The vacancy rate is 28.0% — elevated. Median household income is $60,396, below the U.S. median near $78,000. The tenure split is 74% owner-occupied to 26% rented. The demographic-stress sub-score lands at 32/100.

Taken together, 49038 profiles as an active-distress market where motivated-seller and below-market acquisitions concentrate. No parcel file is published for 49038 yet, but every score above is drawn from a verifiable public dataset and refreshed as records post.

No ZIP is too small to score: 49038 passes through the same foreclosure, tax, mortgage and bank-stress model as any major-metro ZIP, so its 21/100 composite is a like-for-like number rather than an isolated estimate. Where the public record is thin for 49038, the field stays empty rather than modeled, and fills in as new documents post.

49038's score blends several independent layers — foreclosure and mortgage stress, tax and lien delinquency, bank headwind and structural exposure — into one 0–100 number, so understanding the components matters as much as the headline for anyone screening the ZIP. For a buyer, 49038 is one row in a larger workflow: confirm the score, pull the distressed parcels behind it, then move from signal to funded, closed acquisition through DLRadar.