Housing Bubble Geography

Reader comment on: Zoning and the Housing Bubble

Submitted by J.Johnson (United States), Apr 12, 2010 12:20

USA Today reported, with a follow up by Mother Jones, that in 2008 only 8 counties in the U.S. accounted for 25% of all foreclosures nationwide, and 35 counties accounted for 50% of all foreclosures. Mother Jones (http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/03/35-counties-account-50-foreclosures) had a great county-by-county map showing where the major problem counties were located. By far, the largest problems were in California, with additional troubled counties in Florida, Nevada and Arizona. Considering that there are slightly over 3000 counties in total, it certainly seems more than a little unfair that all of us are being screwed to the wall with massive taxes and debt to bail out such a miniscule number areas. I don't know if these counties conform to Krugman's over-regulated thesis, but it seems logical that, if scarcity of housing was a major factor in pushing up house prices, then that same scarcity would buffer prices on the way down. This does not seem to be the case, at least not from the data on www.drhousingbubble.com.

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