A nation of unequal housing fortunes

These maps and the stories that follow are built upon an analysis of how home values have changed since near the start of the nation’s housing turmoil in 2004 in 19,000 Zip codes. They show where housing values have enjoyed the best growth, and where they’ve suffered most.

At the beginning of this period, values escalated rapidly in the bubble, fueled by financial speculation, subprime lending and an abiding national faith in homeownership as a sure-fire source of wealth. Prices peaked by 2007, then collapsed, causing the worst recession since the Great Depression. Trillions of dollars of wealth were lost and millions lost their homes to foreclosure as values dropped to their nadir in 2011. Since then, the recovery has been swift for some and sluggish for others, creating a fractured national map of housing fortunes.