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.
Rohit Manajan is chief technology officer at Io-Tahoe.
Dominic Frederico is President and Chief Executive Officer of Assured Guaranty Ltd., a position he has held since December 2003. During his tenure, Assured Guaranty became the leading provider of municipal bond insurance and financial guarantees. Assured Guaranty completed its initial public offering in 2004 under his leadership, and, in 2009, acquired the financial guaranty insurance company now named Assured Guaranty Municipal, thereby merging the only two monoline insurers to continue writing policies before, during and after the Great Recession.Mr. Frederico has supervised the operations of Assured Guaranty since its acquisition in 1999 by ACE Limited, where he was Vice Chairman, and also served as Chairman of ACE Financial Services, ACE INA and ACE USA. He worked at ACE for nine years prior to his post at Assured Guaranty, progressing to increasingly senior positions, including: President & CEO, ACE Bermuda; Chairman, President & CEO, ACE INA Holdings; and President & Chief Operating Officer, ACE Limited. He oversaw the successful acquisition and integration of the domestic and international property casualty operations acquired by ACE from CIGNA Corporation in July 1999 and the acquisition of Capital Re Corp., the predecessor company to Assured Guaranty, in December 1999.Prior to joining ACE, Mr. Frederico spent 13 years working for various subsidiaries of the American International Group.Mr. Frederico holds an M.B.A. in Finance and a B.S. from Drexel University, as well as a Certified Public Accountant�s designation in the State of Pennsylvania. In addition to his professional responsibilities, he is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.�
Christine has significant experience serving as bond counsel, disclosure counsel and underwriter�s counsel on financings, including general obligation bonds and revenue bonds for transportation, water, sewer, power and tax increment projects. Her practice focuses on public finance transactions for state agencies, counties, cities, urban renewal agencies, school and special districts, and tribal governments. Her experience also includes conduit 501(c)(3) financings, full faith and credit or limited tax obligations, private bank placements, and shortterm obligations, including notes and lines of credit.
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.
