Real Estate

These are the riskiest housing markets in America right now

Some of the nati🍌on’s largest housing markets ar💧e the most vulnerable to a potential economic downturn.

The largest risks were in counties near New York City, Chicago, and Philadel♉phia, according to a from real estate data firm ATTOM. The report was based on home prices, average local wages, the percentage of homes that could be foreclosed on, , the portion of underwater properties, local unemployment rates, and other factors in the second quౠarter of 2023.

“We continue to see pockets of the U.S. housing market where the foundation is a bit shakier — or more solid — than others,” ATTOM CEO Rob Barber saidꦐ in a statement. “It doesn’t mean any one area or clust🌊er of areas is about to crash. The overall market and the economy remain way too strong for imminent warnings to be sounded. But there are weak spots that are still popping up as areas to watch, especially if the market turns back downward.”

Which housing markets are the riskiest?

New Jersey and Illinois had the highest concentrations of at-risk housing markets. Together, 23 of the 50 most vulnerable counties were ꧃within the borders of the two states.

That doesn’t mean homeowners in these states should panic — or that buyers looking for cheap homes should get excited. Risky mortgages were largely eliminated in the wake of the , so today’s homebuyers are less likely to default on their loans. And there are still more buyers in the market than there are homes for sale, despiꦦte today’s high home prices and .

Those f꧂actors are likely to keep most🧜 housing markets stable, even if they run into some turbulence.

In New York, Brooklyn was deemed vulnerable to a downturn. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Staten Island is also in a precarious spot. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Two counties in the Sacramento, California, area were also found to be risky. Getty Images

Eight counties in the New York City metropolitan area were deemed more exposed to a downturn. The housing markets in Brooklyn and Staten Island as well as six suburban counties in New Jersey j🦄ust outside of New York City were more precarious.

Chicago h🙈ad six risky counties in its metropolitan area, Philadelphia had three, and California had six counties stretching 🎀throughout the state with two in the Sacramento metropolitan area.

In the riskier housing markets, more homeowners were underwater on their mortgages, a higher percentage of homes had received , and the unemployment rate was꧅ generally higher than the national average.

Which housing markets are the safest?

On the flip sidܫe, the safest and most st💮able housing markets were located in the Southern region of the country as well as New England. Of the 51 least vulnerable counties, 18 were in the South, 17 were in the Northeast, 11 were in the Midwest, and five were in the West. (The West is also the nation’s priciest region for housing affordability.)

These markets generally had fewer homeowners who were underwater on their loans and were in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure. Unemployment was also lower in these areas, below 3% in 3𝔉9 of these 51 counties.

Among the safer bets: three counties in metro Nashville. Getty Images
Same goes for three counties in the Boston area. Getty Images/iStockphoto
The report also found two counties in the Billings, Montana metro to be a safe. Getty Images

Virginia had the honor of having the most stable m🍌arkets with six counties de🃏emed to be least at-risk. Five of those were in the Washington, DC, metro area.


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Massachusetts had five, three of which 𓃲were in the Bosto♐n metropolitan area. Tennessee, Montana, and New Hampshire all tied with four each. There were three in the Nashville metro and two in the Billings, MT, metro.

New Hampshire’s Manchester and Concord were also named some of the safest housi𓄧ng markets. That’s a boon for the New Hampshire markets, which have beenꦜ at the top of the in recent months.