LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. -- Georgia is among the top three states for zip codes with the highest foreclosure rates, according to a new article published by CNNMoney.

The Peach State joins Florida and Illinois at the top of the list, displacing Arizona, California and Nevada.

RESOURCE GUIDE | Preventing foreclosure

And a Gwinnett County suburb has the zip code with the highest foreclosure rate in the U.S.

According to the CNNMoney article:

The next years of real estate are not going to be positive for homeowners. In fact, it’s estimated that in 2012 over 60% of all home sales will be foreclosures or short sales. This means that the banks will control the pricing of more than half the real estate market and we can expect continued declining values. This idea may not sit well with many after the mortgage meltdown and moral hazard issues we had over the past five years.

Further, we at Sellect Realty believe that it will be another five to seven years before we see home values near their previous peaks and then we expect a plateau for several years to follow before growth. Currently our market is still declining. Despite month-over-month gains we have had another drastic decline in home values over the past 12 months. According to the recent statistics released by Realtor.com the average listing price decreased by 11.42% from June 2010 to $250,933.