California, New Jersey, Illinois Have Highest Concentrations of At-Risk Markets: ATTOM

(Niraj Patel Stock Photo Thanks to Getty Images for making this photo available on Unsplash)

California, New Jersey and Illinois once again have the highest concentrations of at-risk markets in the country, according to ATTOM, Irvine, Calif.

Some of the biggest clusters of at-risk markets are in the New York City and Chicago areas, as well as inland California, ATTOM’s Special Housing Risk Report said. Less-vulnerable markets remained spread mainly throughout the South and Midwest.

The report examined 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 first quarter of 2024.

“The patterns of varying market vulnerability that we’ve been seeing over the past few years are pretty much continuing in place, with some of the same areas falling out at opposite ends of the trend line,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said. “Once again, this is not to suggest that any one market is facing imminent decline. It’s more a measure of vulnerability gaps. But with the housing market slowing down over the past year, some metro areas appear notably better positioned than others to withstand a scenario of the market topping out and heading downward.”

Gaps in home affordability, underwater mortgages, foreclosures and unemployment – revealed that California, New Jersey and Illinois had 34 of the 50 counties around the U.S. considered most exposed to potential drop-offs,” ATTOM reported. “As with earlier periods over the past few years, those concentrations dominated the list of metropolitan areas more at risk of downturns,” the report said.

At the other end of the risk spectrum, 22 of the 50 markets considered least likely to decline fell in Virginia, Wisconsin and Tennessee, the report noted.