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.
James Pruskowski is the CIO and co-founder of 16Rock, a full-service asset management firm specializing in Municipal Bonds. He leads the firm's flagship 16Rock Municipal Opportunities Fund LP, a long-short hedge fund, as well as the firm's long-only Separately Managed Account (SMA) client business.
Mr. Pruskowski spent nearly three decades at BlackRock starting in 1994 shortly after the firm was founded, when it had only 50 employees and $25 billion in assets under management. He was a Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and Head of Municipal Bonds, Institutional & Wealth Management. Mr. Pruskowski was a member of the management committee and led a team of 58 investment professionals, driving strategic growth initiatives and innovation. He has a proven track record over multiple investment cycles and award-winning performance.
Before focusing on municipal bonds, Mr. Pruskowski was a multi-sector taxable fixed income portfolio manager. He was instrumental in launching BlackRock's Financial Institutions Group, which has grown into the world's leading insurance asset management business. He provided a wide array of services in balance sheet management, analytics, capital markets, and portfolio construction to banks, insurance companies, and official institutions worldwide. Mr. Pruskowski began his career in Risk & Quantitative Analytics as a risk analyst and programmer, playing a key role in the development of what is now known as BlackRock Solutions.
Mr. Pruskowski is a thought leader and content expert, known for his diverse skills, experience, and energetic, detail-oriented, and structured approach. His hands-on, can-do attitude drives results. As an industry advocate with strong brand awareness, he frequently speaks publicly, engages with the media, and collaborates with clients. He possesses a unique talent for understanding, designing, and clearly explaining markets and complex concepts in an accessible manner.
Paul Wnek is founder, CEO and principal solutions architect at ExpandAP, a 14x certified Salesforce B2B solutions architect, founder and CEO of Coalescence Cloud (Salesforce Consulting Partner) and Salesforce certified AI associate.
Hagit Levy-Shalev is an associate professor in the Stan Ross Department of Accountancy in the Zicklin School of Business at CUNY's Baruch College.
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.
