ATTOM: Foreclosures Down by Half from 2016

ATTOM Data Solutions, Irvine, Calif., said properties in foreclosure in the second quarter fell by nearly in half from three years ago.

The company’s Q3 2019 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report also showed 1.530 million vacant single-family homes and condos, representing 1.6 percent of all U.S. homes.

During the third quarter, ATTOM reported 304,000 homes were in the process of foreclosure, with about 3.2 percent being “zombie” (vacant) foreclosures. While the count of properties in the process of foreclosure is down by nearly 22 percent since ATTOM’s last foreclosure vacancy report in the same period of 2016, the number that sits empty has dropped nearly in half.

“The blight of vacant, decaying properties facing foreclosure has declined dramatically across the United States–another good-news offshoot of the housing boom that’s gone on for eight years,” said Todd Teta, chief product officer with ATTOM Data Solutions. “A handful of areas still face notable problems with homes abandoned by owners after they get hit with foreclosure claims. But with the economy improving and the housing market still hot, an expanding number of neighborhoods across the country face little or no problem with these so-called zombie properties.”

Earlier this week, the Mortgage Bankers Association issued its 2nd Quarter National Delinquency Survey, reporting the delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties increased to a seasonally adjusted rate of 4.53 percent of all loans outstanding, up by 11 basis points from the first quarter and by 17 basis points from a year ago.

MBA said the foreclosure inventory rate, representing the percentage of loans in the foreclosure process, fell to 0.90 percent in the second quarter–the lowest since fourth quarter 1995. However, the percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions started in the second quarter rose by two basis points to 0.25 percent.

Other key ATTOM report findings:

–9,612 properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide. Washington, D.C. had the highest percentage of zombie foreclosures (12.5 percent). States where the rates were above the national average of 3.2 percent included Oregon (8.8 percent), Maine (8.5 percent), Kansas (7.6 percent) and New Mexico (7.0 percent). The lowest rates–all less than 1.4 percent–were in New Hampshire, Idaho, Colorado, Connecticut and Delaware.

–New York had the highest actual number of zombie properties (2,428), followed by Florida (1,634), Illinois (985), Ohio (891) and New Jersey (463).

–Among metropolitan areas with at least 100,000 residential properties, Peoria, Ill., had the highest percent of vacant foreclosures at 16.5 percent, followed by Wichita, Kan. (9.5 percent), Syracuse, N.Y. (9.3 percent), Honolulu (8.5 percent) and Youngstown, Ohio (8.4 percent).

–Among zip codes with at least 100 properties in pre-foreclosure, highest rates of owner-vacated properties were concentrated in New York, Florida, Ohio and Illinois. The zip codes with the top percentages were zip code 61605 in the Peoria MSA with 48.6 percent, zip codes 44108 (26.0 percent), 44112 (23.0 percent), and 44105 (19.7 percent), all in the Cleveland, Ohio, area and rounding out the top five is zip code 14701 in Jamestown, N.Y. with 19.6 percent.

–Highest levels of vacant investor-owned properties were in Indiana (8.8 percent), Kansas (6.7 percent), Minnesota (6.0 percent), Ohio (5.9 percent) and Rhode Island (5.8 percent).