New York City and Chicago Areas Remain Vulnerable to Housing Issues Despite Strong Overall Markets; South Region Faces Less Exposure While West Has More
IRVINE, Calif. — Sept. 5, 2024 — ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property, and real estate data, today released a Special Housing Risk Report spotlighting county-level housing markets around the United States that are more or less vulnerable to declines, based on home affordability, underwater mortgages and other measures in the second quarter of 2024. The report shows that California, New Jersey and Illinois once again had the highest concentrations of the most-at-risk markets in the country, with some of the biggest clusters in the New York City and Chicago areas, as well as inland California. Less-vulnerable markets remained spread mainly throughout the South, along with parts of the Midwest.
The second-quarter patterns – derived from gaps in home affordability, underwater mortgages, foreclosures and unemployment – revealed that nearly half of the counties around the U.S. considered most exposed to potential drop-offs were in California, New Jersey and Illinois. As with earlier periods over the past few years, those concentrations dominated the list of areas more at risk of downturns.
County-level housing markets on that list included seven in around New York City, five in the Chicago metro area and 12 in areas of California mostly away from the Pacific coast. The rest were scattered largely around…
