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.
Suzanne Schmitt is a vice president, Financial Wellness at Prudential Financial, where she focuses on the firm’s strategy around financial wellness outcomes. Prudential Financial is a financial wellness leader and premier active global investment manager with more than $1.5 trillion in assets under management as of June 30, 2020.
Ken Cahill is the CEO and co-founder of SilverCloud Health. With offices in Boston, Dublin, and London, SilverCloud is the world’s leading digital mental health platform. It enables the delivery of clinically validated digital therapeutic programs that are proven to significantly improve mental health outcomes, increase access and scale while reducing costs of care delivery.
Prior to founding SilverCloud Health, Ken held senior positions in several multinationals including, Dell, HP, and Gateway. Ken received the 2018 MedTech Boston 40 under 40 award. He holds a BSc. in computing, and a diploma in new business and certificate in company direction from the Institute of Directions in London. Visit Ken on LinkedIn or Twitter at @SilverCloudH.
Nigel Morris is the co-founder and managing partner of QED Investors, a fintech venture capital platform focused on disruptive, high-growth financial services companies.
Nigel is the chairman of ClearScore and Mission Lane, serves on the boards of Remitly, Bitso, Current and Amount, and is a board observer for QuintoAndar. Additionally, he works in an advisory capacity with Oliver Wyman.
Prior to QED, Nigel co-founded Capital One Financial Services in 1994.
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.
