Published on Friday, December 5, 2025
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More than 63 percent of counties tracked in ATTOM's study require at least a third of consumer wages.
Homeownership may be the goal – but it doesn't come risk-free. In counties around the nation, even households that had made the challenging leap to homeownership found themselves still at risk of losing their biggest asset in 3Q 2025, though the risk was not evenly spread.
The challenges increased as the national median home price soared to a record high of $375,000 and unemployment rose.
“Covering the purchase and monthly costs of a median priced home would have required at least half of the typical county resident’s annual wages in 19.8 percent (115) of the 580 counties with sufficient data to analyze. And in 63.1 percent (366) of the counties, a median priced home required at least a third of the typical resident’s wages,” ATTOM noted in its latest report on the nation’s housing market risk.
Not surprisingly, therefore, many homeowners fell into the high-risk category as judged by four criteria: affordability – meaning the share of wages needed to pay for housing costs; the proportion of seriously underwater mortgages; foreclosure rates; and county unemployment rates. The latter two account for the highest risk. Risk rankings were based on a combination of these four categories in 580 counties, excluding Colorado and Connecticut.
Nationally, one of every 1,402 homes was in foreclosure in the third quarter, according to ATTOM. But in some counties in certain states, the risk was much higher. For example, there was one foreclosure for every 806 homes in four California counties at the highest risk: Butte, Humboldt, Shasta and El Dorado, as well as Charlotte County, FL. Each had an unemployment rate at or above 5.1%.
In Dorchester County, SC, one in every 365 homes had a foreclosure filing, in Kaufman County, TX, one in 400, in Osceola County, FL, one in 449 and in Cuyahoga County, OH, one in 463.
The nation’s least risky counties, with unemployment rates at or below 4% and foreclosure rates below one in 2,624 properties, were Berkeley, WV, Chittenden, VT, Erie, NY, Olmsted, MN and Albany, NY.
Of the 50 least risky counties, seven were in Wisconsin, five in Tennessee and four each in Montana, New Hampshire and Virginia.
In the third quarter, a third of the typical American’s wages went to pay for housing expenses. But in some wealthy counties, households would have had to pay 100% of the typical wage, or more, to cover those costs. In Kings County, NY, the cost would have been 113% of the typical wage. In three California counties – Santa Cruz, Marin and Monterey – the threshold would have ranged from 96.8% to 111.8% and in Maui County, HI, household costs would have consumed 94% of typical wages.
Another feature of the riskiest counties was the high number of underwater loans, where the loan balance exceeded the property's fair market value. Louisiana was the epicenter of this trend. Of the 50 counties with the highest underwater rates, 14 were in the state, especially the parishes of Calcasieu, Rapides, Ouachita, East Baton Rouge and Tangipahoa. Six of the worst-affected counties were in Illinois, five in Pennsylvania and four in Arkansas.