ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, today released its July 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 30,358 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — down 4 percent from a month ago but up 143 percent from a year ago.
“While it’s encouraging to see both foreclosure starts and completions drop off a bit in July, it’s also worth noting that there may be some seasonality impacting the numbers,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM. “In eight of the last 10 years Q3 foreclosure activity has been lower than the previous quarter, so we might just be seeing a return to a more normal seasonal pattern of delinquencies and defaults.”
Delaware, Illinois and New Jersey had the highest foreclosure rates
Nationwide one in every 4,628 housing units had a foreclosure filing in July 2022. States with the highest foreclosure rates were Delaware (one in every 2,127 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Illinois (one in every 2,334 housing units); New Jersey (one in every 2,564 housing units); Nevada (one in every 2,609 housing units); and South Carolina (one in every 2,976 housing units).
Among the 223 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in July 2022 were Elkhart, IN (one in every 1,592 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Davenport, IA (one in every 1,626 housing units); Fayetteville, NC (one in every 1,673 housing units); Cleveland, OH (one in every 1,757 housing units); and Atlantic City, NJ (one in every 1,886 housing units).
Those metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million, with the worst foreclosure rates in July 2022 including Cleveland, OH were: Chicago, IL (one in every 2,082 housing units); Las Vegas, NV (one in every 2,190 housing units); Riverside, CA (one in every 2,431 housing units); and Philadelphia, PA (one in every 2,519 housing units).
Foreclosure starts increase monthly in 21 states nationwide
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 21,428 U.S. properties in July 2022, down 4 percent from last month but up 226 percent from a year ago.
States that had at least 100 foreclosure starts in July 2022 and saw a monthly increase in foreclosure starts included: Michigan (up 42 percent); Massachusetts (up 39 percent); Iowa (up 26 percent); Wisconsin (up 25 percent); and Indiana (up 22 percent).
“It appears that a few states are still catching up on processing foreclosures on loans that were seriously delinquent prior to the pandemic, which accounts for the year-over-year spike in foreclosure starts,” Sharga added. “But early-stage delinquencies continue to be lower than normal, so once these older loans have re-entered the foreclosure process, it will be interesting to see if foreclosure starts fall off significantly.”
Those major metropolitan areas with a population greater than 200,000 that had the greatest number of foreclosures starts in July 2022 included: New York, NY (1,380 foreclosure starts); Chicago, IL (1,247 foreclosure starts); Los Angeles, CA (678 foreclosure starts); Miami, FL (666 foreclosure starts); and Philadelphia, PA (652 foreclosure starts).
Foreclosure completion numbers decrease 5 percent from last month
Lenders repossessed 3,068 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in July 2022, down 5 percent from last month but up 27 percent from last year.
Counter to the national trend, those states that saw a monthly increase in REOs in July 2022, included: Maryland (up 147 percent); Hawaii (up 58 percent); North Dakota (up 38 percent); Massachusetts (up 38 percent); and Michigan (up 27 percent).
States that saw the greatest number of REOs in July 2022, included: Illinois (359 REOs); Pennsylvania (185 REOs); Ohio (184 REOs); Michigan (182 REOs); and New York (167 REOs).
Those major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with a population greater than 1 million that saw the greatest number of REOs in July 2022 included: Chicago, IL (270 REOs); New York, NY (90 REOs); Philadelphia, PA (89 REOs); Detroit, MI (82 REOs); and Birmingham, AL (66 REOs).
Report Methodology
The ATTOM U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the ATTOM Data Warehouse during the month and quarter. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the quarter may have been recorded in the previous quarter. Data is collected from more than 3,000 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 99 percent of the U.S. population. ATTOM’s report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). For the annual, midyear and quarterly reports, if more than one type of foreclosure document is received for a property during the timeframe, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The annual, midyear, quarterly and monthly reports all check if the same type of document was filed against a property previously. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located, the report does not count the property in the current year, quarter or month.
