New Jersey and Florida account for almost half of the 50 U.S. counties whose housing markets are most vulnerable to the economic effects of the coronavirus, an Attom Data Solutions report said.
Attom ranked 483 counties across the country based on the percentage of housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in the fourth quarter, the number of underwater properties in each county and the percentage of local wages required to pay for major homeownership expenses.
Thirty-six of the top 50 most vulnerable counties had median home prices in the $160,000-to-$300,000 range, the report noted.
Of the 10 most vulnerable counties, six are in New Jersey, including Sussex at No. 1 and Warren at No. 2.
"It looks like the Northeast is more at risk than other areas," Todd Teta, Attom's chief product officer, said in a press release. "As we head into the spring home buying season, the next few months will reveal how severe the impact will be."
Among the New Jersey counties that would be most affected, five are in the New York metropolitan area: Bergen, Essex, Passaic, Middlesex and Union. However, of the four counties in New York that Attom considered to be most vulnerable, only Rockland was in proximity to New York City.
Jinan Budge is a principal analyst at Forrester Research serving security and risk professionals. She is an experienced leader serving security and risk professionals who specializes in transformational change and building sustainable cybersecurity, digital, and information risk management capabilities. Jinan has delivered outstanding results using strategic and innovative thinking in the cybersecurity field — building, standing up, and delivering significant cyber transformation strategies across the public and private sectors. Jinan’s research centers on building transformational and effective security programs by focusing and communicating the business issues and value of security to organizations and executives.
Previous Work Experience
Jinan has recently returned to Forrester after several years as director of cyber strategy, Engagement Governance Transport for NSW and a similar role with Qantas Airlines. Jinan also has significant financial services and consulting expertise as well as multiple security certifications, such as CISSP and CISM.
Education
Jinan holds two bachelor’s degrees in science and commerce from the Australian National University.
Amanda Rousseau is ALLL marketing manager at Sageworks, where she works to educate accountants and bankers on the intricacies of the allowance for loan and leases losses and helps them optimize portfolio risk processes.
Lisa Carley is a senior consultant at ECG Management Consultants.
For New York City proper, all five boroughs were in the middle of the list: Staten Island was ranked 161, Queens was 271, Manhattan at 312, Brooklyn at 320 and the Bronx was 327.
Most of the Florida counties considered at risk are in the northern and central portions of the state. But Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, is also on that list.
There were four counties in the metro Chicago area on the list were Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will in Illinois. Cook County, which includes Chicago proper, is ranked 53rd most vulnerable.
Meanwhile, the only California county on the 50 most vulnerable list is Shasta. Los Angeles County was No. 276. The Bay Area counties were also in the bottom half of the list.
At the other end of the spectrum, 10 of the counties where the housing market is least vulnerable to the coronavirus are in Texas. Seven are in Wisconsin and there are five in Colorado.
King County in Washington, where Seattle is located, was the 20th least vulnerable county according to Attom.
