Coronavirus has impacted home showings and has even resulted in more homes being delisted.
While the novel virus is still spreading, it’s still up in the air how it will impact the housing market, as real estate has been deemed an essential business in some markets.
Based on data from ATTOM Data Solutions, the following counties are home to housing markets that are the most vulnerable to coronavirus impact.
Most notably, ATTOM said that the virus has made 14 of New Jersey’s 21 counties the most vulnerable in the U.S.
The top 50 most vulnerable markets also include four in New York, three in Connecticut, 10 from Florida, only one in California, zero in other West Coast states and only one in the Southwest.
These markets are based on the percentage of housing units that received a foreclosure notice in the fourth quarter of 2019, and local wages, ATTOM said.
“It’s too early to tell how much effect the Coronavirus fallout will have on different housing markets around the country,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer at ATTOM Data Solutions, in a release. “But the impact is likely to be significant from region to region and county to county.”
“What we’ve done is spotlight areas that appear to be more or less at risk based on several important factors,” Teta continued. “From that analysis, it looks like the Northeast is more at risk than other areas. As we head into the Spring home buying season, the next few months will reveal how severe the impact will be.”
As a whole, the Northeast has the largest concentration of at-risk counties. Other clusters are in New Jersey and Florida, while the West and Midwest have the smallest.
Combined, New Jersey and Florida have 24 of the 50 most vulnerable counties.
Meanwhile, Texas has 10 of the 50 least vulnerable counties, followed by Wisconsin with seven and Colorado with five.
Counties with median home prices ranging from $160,000 to $300,000 make up 36 of the top 50 counties most vulnerable to impact. Counties with median home prices below $160,000 or above $300,000 make up 14 of the top 50 most vulnerable counties.
Markets are considered more or less at risk based on the percentage of housing units receiving a foreclosure notice in Q4 2019, the percent of homes underwater (LTV 100 or greater) in Q4 2019, and the percentage of local wages required to pay for major home ownership expenses. Rankings are based on a combination of those three categories in 483 counties around the United States with sufficient data to analyze. Counties were ranked in each category, from lowest to highest, with the overall conclusions based on a combination of the three rankings.
