A Map Can Tell You a Lot

Source: Q1 2008 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report via Frenzy.com

This map is a little out of date, although I think the pattern it shows seems to be holding as the sub-prime mortgage crisis continues. It serves to make my point as to how much you can learn quickly from a good map. (Click on the map to see the full version.)

The obvious lesson of this map is that a lot of the red states (in the sense of Republican) don't have a foreclosure problem, and that the problem is concentrated in states with lots of immigration -- parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, and the Denver area of Colorado. It is also wide spread in the Northeast corridor (from Washington D.C. to Boston), the southeast, the northwest, and the triangle formed by Ohio, Indiana and Michigan.

The foreclosure crisis seems more acute in large metropolitan areas and less serious in rural areas. That would suggest that it is felt far more acutely by people in Democratic strongholds, and less acutely by people in Republican strongholds. Of course, its repercussions in terms of the crisis in financial institutions, the recession, the employment downturn, and the government crisis as it tries to respond to these situations will affect us all.