Despite delinquency and foreclosure rates being the lowest since 2000, according to CoreLogic, GOBankingRates.com recently evaluated and ranked 40 urban areas as potential up and comers based upon foreclosure rates, the percentage of homes with mortgages that were in negative equity, homeowner vacancy rates, delinquency rates on mortgage payments and rental vacancy rates.
GOBankingRate’s thinking here? Urban areas with potential foreclosure, vacancy and delinquency problems are likely to be pegged with low home values.
“You could see these (urban areas) as a list of bargains,” said Andrew DePietro, the lead researcher and data analyst for this evaluation with GOBankingRates.
Here are GOBankingRate’s ten urban areas with the highest delinquency rates and the highest vacancy rates:
- Newark NJ
- Detroit MI
- Bridgeport CT
- Baltimore MY
- Hartford CT
- Paterson NJ
- Cleveland OH
- Fayetteville NC
- Dayton OH
- Montgomery AL
Other urban areas with high risks of dangerous delinquency and vacancy rates also include…
- the Northeaster cities of Bridgeport, Philadelphia and Syracuse
- the Midwestern cities of Chicago, Toledo, Akron, Rockford, Joliet, Aurora and Milwaukee
- the Southern cities of Birmingham, Columbus GA, Jacksonville, Memphis, Mobile, New Orleans and Norfolk VA.
- Tulsa, ranked 40th on this list of potential bargain cities ,is not out of the woods. It still has above average foreclosure rates and too high homeowner/rental vacancy rates.
DiPietro said that suburbs outside of these cities were “in less danger” of “going belly up” with potentially declining home prices due to foreclosure and vacancy risks.
Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of REALTORS®, sees things differently in these high-risk urban areas. “Right now there are more buyers than there are homes for sale. The only way (these urban areas could become more iffy from a buyer’s point of view) is if there is an economic recession along with substantial job cuts. But it looks like it is going to be a continuing job creating economy.”
With expert opinions split down the middle concerning a potentially upcoming recession, GOBankingRate’s up and coming urban areas could either be a list of “bargains” for homebuyers or a list of places where buyers could lose equity in their homes.
Data sources include the US Census Bureau, Zillow and Realty Track
