Watch the U.S. Foreclosure Devastation Spread: Map
Business + Economy

Watch the U.S. Foreclosure Devastation Spread: Map

iStockphoto/The Fiscal Times

The smart folks at WNYC have pulled together a map that uses data from RealtyTrac to illustrate how foreclosure rates have changed, county by county, since January 2007.

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The power of the map is not just in watching as vast swaths of the Southeast, Midwest and West turn purple over time as foreclosure rates rise but also in being able to see what’s happened in specific counties, even if they haven’t changed colors. Miami-Dade county, for example, went from having one in 476 homes in foreclosure in January 2007 to one in 135 in July 2009. The map, by the way, is part of the Brian Lehrer Show’s series looking at 30 Issues in 30 Days.

And for a state-by-state snapshot of where the foreclosure crisis stood as of August, here’s a heat map from RealtyTrac. California still had the greatest number of foreclosure properties – more than 40,000. But Illinois had the highest foreclosure rate, with one in 298 housing units in foreclosure. Kane County, Ill. – outside Chicago – had one in 117 housing units in foreclosure.

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For more, see the full heat map on the RealtyTrac site.