Flings can include default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions. The total, up 34% from the second quarter and 68% from the third quarter of 2020, means 1 in every 3,019 homes in the United States has received some form of foreclosure filing.
The report also shows there were 19,609 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in September 2021, up 24 percent from the previous month and 102 percent from September 2020.
"Despite the increased level of foreclosure activity in September, we're still far below historically normal numbers," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company. "September foreclosure actions were almost 70 percent lower than they were prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in September of 2019, and Q3 foreclosure activity was 60 percent lower than the same quarter that year.”
He added that, “even with similar increases in foreclosures over the next few months, we'll end the year significantly below what we'd see in a normal housing market."
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 25,209 U.S. properties in Q3 2021, up 32% from the previous quarter and 67% from a year ago — the first double-digit quarterly percentage increase since 2014.
States that posted the greatest number of foreclosure starts in the third quarter included California (3,4340), Texas (2,827), Florida (2,546), New York (1,363), and Illinois (1,362).
"So far the government and the mortgage industry have worked together to do an extraordinary job of preventing millions of unnecessary foreclosures using the foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance program," Sharga said. "But there are hundreds of thousands of borrowers scheduled to exit forbearance in the next two months, and it's possible that we might see a higher percentage of those borrowers default on their loans."
States with the highest foreclosure rates in Q3 2021 were Nevada (one in every 1,463 housing units with a foreclosure filing), Illinois (one in every 1,465), Delaware (one in every 1,515), New Jersey (one in every 1,667), and Florida (one in every 1,743).
In addition, lenders repossessed 7,574 U.S. properties through foreclosure (REO) in the quarter, up 22% from the previous quarter and 46% from a year ago, the first quarterly increase since Q1 2016.
States that posted the most completed foreclosures in Q3 2021 included Illinois (965 REOs), Florida (564), Pennsylvania (480), Michigan (401), and New York (370).
