October 22, 2012
By RealtyTrac Staff
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The heat maps below are part of RealtyTrac's Exclusive Election 2012 Local Housing Market Health Check released today. Download the full report, which includes embed codes for the following heat maps. 
The report looked at five key metrics related to the housing market -- average home price, unemployment rate, foreclosure inventory, foreclosure starts and share of distressed sales. Based on these five key metrics, the U.S. housing market comes out slightly worse off than it was four years ago. The positives of lower foreclosure inventory and fewer foreclosure starts are outweighed by the negatives of lower home prices, higher unemployment and a higher share of distressed sales.
But because real estate is ultimately local, the national picture does not provide much insight into what is happening in each of the myriad local markets across the country. A look at the five key metrics mentioned above at the county level provides a more nuanced mosaic of whether housing is better off or worse off than it was four years ago.
In the 919 counties with data available for all five metrics, 580 (65 percent) showed at least three out of the five key metrics worse off than four years ago, while in 315 counties (35 percent) at least three of the five key metrics were better off than four years ago.Each of the maps below displays a different metric related to housing along with information about how each county voted in the last presidential election. Different shades of red and blue represent how each county voted. To see the housing-related data for a county, simply hover over that county on the map.
Please note, not all the data is available for some counties.
Home PricesAverage home prices decreased from four years ago in 72 percent of counties analyzed in the RealtyTrac report. Learn more about the home price trends.Unemployment RatesUnemployment rates increased compared to four years ago in a whopping 94 percent of the 919 counties analyzed for the ReatlyTrac report. Learn more about the unemployment trends.Foreclosure InventoryForeclosure inventory decreased from four years ago in 52 percent of the counties analyzed for the report, although there were some notable exceptions to that downward trend in counties in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Florida, among others. Learn more about the foreclosure inventory trends.Foreclosure StartsSimilar to foreclosure inventory, foreclosure starts decreased compared to four years ago in the majority of counties (53 percent) analyzed in the RealtyTrac report. Learn more about the foreclosure start trends.
Share of Distressed SalesThe percentage of residential sales involving properties in some stage of foreclosure or bank-owned increased in a very narrow majority of counties analyzed for the report, 455, versus 450 counties where the distressed percentage of sales was down compared to four years ago. Learn more about distressed sale trends.
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