Foreclosure activity nears pre-pandemic pace

Abstract

Foreclosure activity approached its pre-pandemic pace in the first half of 2022 and is likely to return to that mark by early next year, according to a new report from Attom Data Solutions. The real estate data intelligence provider found 164,581 properties across the U.S had foreclosure filings, such as default notices, scheduled auctions and repossessions, in the first six months of the year. The number is just 1% below what was recorded in the first half of 2020 when a federal moratorium on foreclosures was initially put into place to protect homeowners during the COVID-19 pandemic. "While overall foreclosure activity is still running significantly below historic averages, the dramatic increase in foreclosure starts suggests that we may be back to normal levels by sometime in early 2023," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at Attom, in a press release. States seeing the greatest number of foreclosure starts in the first half of the year were California with 12,805, Florida at 11,448 and Tennessee with 10,970. "There's very little delinquency or default activity that's truly new in the numbers we're tracking."In the year's first half, foreclosure filings increased 15% between the first and second quarters to total 90,139, according to Attom. Cleveland had the dubious distinction of topping U.S. metropolitan areas of greater than 200,000 residents with a foreclosure rate of 0.4%.Lender repossessions also increased in the first half of 2022 by 30% from the previous six months and 113% on an annual basis to 20,750.