States across the East Coast, as well as the greater Chicago area, will face the biggest hurdles to housing recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes, according to a new report by ATTOM Data Solutions. 

In a first quarter retrospective released this week, the property database firm noted that New York City, Chicago, and parts of South Florida contain the largest clusters of high-risk counties where a post-COVID recovery will be steepest. Conversely, regions across the American West (with the exception of the Northern California counties of Butte, Humboldt, and Shasta) are best positioned to recover swiftly.

Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut and North Carolina accounted for 33 of the 50 counties most vulnerable to the economic impact of the pandemic in the first quarter of this year, including seven suburban counties near Chicago, four near New York City, five in southern Florida and two around Hartford, Connecticut.