The rose bushes are back in bloom on Beth Court, but the lawns on the block remain parched and browning, reminders of the absent families who once tended to them.

For a few precious weeks this summer, all eight houses on this cul-de-sac about 60 miles east of Los Angeles were occupied, but the housing bust that has come to define the landscape and economy of Southern California , and much of the country , has fundamentally changed the block.

Since January, The New York Times has made regular visits to the fraying neighborhood to chronicle , in print, photographs and video , how, in one small place, the foreclosure crisis has reshaped the view of homeownership as a cornerstone of the American dream. The continuing economic fallout has brought a reckoning for those who believed that home equity would always rise, financing lives beyond their means, while also creating unexpected opportunities for people previously on the sidelines of homeownership.

Over the last two years, half of Beth Court has been in foreclosure, and homes whose owners took out thousands of dollars in equity during the bonanza years are now worth less than half the price paid for them.

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