Foreclosure Auction Volume Hits Six-Year High, Auction.com Finds

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Auction.com, Irvine, Calif., released its Q1 Auction Market Dispatch, finding that completed foreclosure auctions reached 66% of their Q1 2020 level, and were up 10% from Q4 and up 33% year-over-year. That’s also a six-year high.

This indicates a continued normalization after the COVID-19 pandemic–not a new crisis, Auction.com noted.

Scheduled foreclosure auctions rose to 69% of their Q1 2020 level, up 11% quarter-over-quarter and 16% year-over-year. Average equity for scheduled foreclosure auctions fell to 26.9% of value, down 6% quarter-over-quarter and 13% year-over-year.

REO auction volume reached 49% of its Q1 2020 level, up 6% from Q4 and 26% from a year ago.

The REO auction sales rate–defined as the quantity of properties buyers were willing to buy as a percentage of properties available for sale–increased 12% quarter-over-quarter and 36% year-over-year. The foreclosure auction sales rate rose 2% from the previous quarter but declined 12% from a year ago.

Buyer demand increased quarter-over-quarter for both foreclosure and REO auction. Foreclosure auction buyers were willing to pay 67.6% of estimated retail market value in Q1, up from 66.8% in Q4 and flat from Q1 2025.

REO auction buyers were willing to pay 67.3% of estimated retail market value, up from 64.6% in Q4 2025 and down from 68.6% a year ago. That represents 102% of the Q1 2020 level.

Bid-ask spreads narrowed from Q4 to Q1–for REO auctions they narrowed to 912 basis points, down from 1,074 basis points in Q4 and 1,195 basis points in Q1 2025. For foreclosure auctions they narrowed to 909 basis points, down from 980 basis points in Q4 but up from 708 basis points in Q1 2025.