California was home to four of the five of the riskiest housing markets during the third quarter, according to the latest Housing Risk Report published by ATTOM.
The five riskiest housing markets in ATTOM’s analysis were Butte County, California; Humboldt County, California; Charlotte County, Florida; Shasta County, County; and El Dorado County, California. The five counties all had unemployment rates at or above 5.1% and at least one foreclosure for every 806 homes.
The new report determined that 16 of the 50 highest risk markets were in California, followed by nine in New Jersey, four in Florida, and three each in Arizona and Texas. Risk was determined by affordability, proportion of seriously underwater mortgages, foreclosure rates, and county unemployment rates.
At the other end of the spectrum, seven of the 50 least risky counties in ATTOM’s third quarter analysis were in Wisconsin, while five were in Tennessee, and four each were in Montana, New Hampshire, and Virginia. The least risky counties were Berkeley County, West Virginia; Chittenden County, Vermont; Erie County, New York; Olmsted County, Minnesota; and Albany County, New York. All five had unemployment rates at or below 4% and a foreclosure rate of, at most, one in every 2,624 properties.
The new report also found monthly expenses for a nationally median priced home accounted for 33.3% of the typical American’s wages during the third quarter. But in some counties, those homeownership costs exceeded 100% of typical wages – Kings County, New York was the least affordable in the analysis, with median home expenses equaling 113% of typical wages. It was followed by Santa Cruz County, California (111.8% of typical wages), Marin County, CA (101.3% of typical wages), Monterey County, California (96.8% of typical wages); and Maui County, Hawaii (94% of typical wages).
