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.
Jane Diplock AO is chair of the Supervisory Board of the Global Reporting Initiative. She was appointed chair of the GRI Supervisory Board in January 2026. She is a highly experienced corporate governance professional who has served on numerous boards and committees for listed, private and nonprofit entities, with a focus on sustainability standards, regulation, impact reporting and digitization. She is a former Chair of both the IOSCO Executive Committee and the Securities Commission of New Zealand. Her current governance roles include positions with the World Benchmarking Alliance, A4S, Abu Dhabi Global Market Appeals Panel, Wellington Zoo Te Nukuao, and Persefoni AI. Earlier in her career, she led government departments in New South Wales, Australia, and held executive leadership positions in Westpac Banking Corporation. Jane holds degrees in arts and law and a Diploma of Education from Sydney University, and a Diploma of International Law, International Economics and International Relations from the Australian National University, while she was a Chevening Fellow at the London School of Economics. In 2004 she was awarded the Order of Australia for her contribution to business and commerce.
Burcu Bree Manay is founder and managing partner of Manay CPA. She serves on the board of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Forbes Business Council. She is a CPA and Certified Tax Coach with about 25 years of professional accounting, financial planning, tax and business consultancy experience in various U.S. and international sectors.
Gurpreet Chaggar is an associate product marketing manager at Prophix. She joined the company in 2019 as an implementation consultant, where she developed a deep understanding of Prophix's solutions and the impact Prophix has on helping clients optimize business outcomes.
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.
