The Department of Labor Statistics announced on Monday that the recession that started with the subprime mortgage crisis officially ended in June, 2009. Wall Street rallied on the news and the Dow jumped 101 points, but the announcement probably fell on deaf ears in neighborhoods from San Bernardino to Cape Coral.
Home foreclosures are still in red alert in many communities in America. Dante Chinni at Patchwork Nation mapped out which congressional districts are in what we could call the Foreclosure Belt.
Just like two years ago, the hardest hit areas are southern California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. In fact, the 24 congressional districts with the highest foreclosure rates in America are in those four states. If you include Michigan and Georgia, then those six states include the worst 36 congressional districts.
Interestingly, six of the ten districts with the fewest home foreclosures are in West Virginia and Kentucky. The economy is by no means buzzing in Appalachia, by the housing bubble largely passed those states by, thus easing the fall. Manhattan also had two of the four best districts, which is no surprise.
What is surprising is that of the 85 congressional districts that Cook rates as likely to switch parties or toss-up, only nine are from the Foreclosure Belt. Here's a screen shot of Chinni's map:
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