There were a total of 92,634 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — either default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 3% from the previous quarter and 104% from a year ago.
That’s according to ATTOM’s Q3 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report released today. The report also shows there were a total of 31,836 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in September 2022, which is down 8% from the previous month but up 62% from September 2021.
ATTOM also noted that foreclosure starts are close to pre-pandemic levels nationwide. Lenders started the foreclosure process on 67,249 U.S. properties in Q3 2022, up 1% from the previous quarter and up 167% from a year ago.
“Foreclosure starts, while rising since the end of the government’s foreclosure moratorium, still lag behind pre-pandemic levels,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence for ATTOM. “Foreclosure activity is reflecting other aspects of the economy, as unemployment rates continue to be historically low, and mortgage delinquency rates are lower than they were before the COVID-19 outbreak.”
California posted the greatest number of foreclosure starts in Q3 2022 at 7,368. California was closely followed by Florida with 6,671 foreclosure starts and Texas with 6,217 foreclosure starts.
Among the 223 metropolitan statistical areas analyzed in the report, New York held the most foreclosure starts at 4,621. They were followed by Chicago at 3,950 foreclosure starts and Los Angeles at 2,275 starts.
Among those metropolitan areas with a population greater than one million that saw a decline in foreclosure starts in Q3 2022 were led by Tulsa, Oklahoma (down 60%) and Kansas City, Missouri (down 26%).
Nationwide, one in every 1,517 properties had a foreclosure filing in Q3 2022. States with the highest foreclosure rates in Q3 2022 were Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey, South Carolina and Ohio. Those with the highest foreclosure rates in Q3 2022 were Peoria, Illinois, with one in every 472 housing units having a foreclosure filing.
ATTOM reported that lenders repossessed 10,515 U.S. properties through foreclosure in Q3 2022, up 18% from the previous quarter and up 39% from a year ago.
“Very few of the properties entering the foreclosure process have reverted to the lender at the end of the foreclosure,” Sharga noted. “In fact, nearly three times more homes were repossessed by lenders in the second quarter of 2019 than in the second quarter of 2022. We believe that this may be an indication that borrowers are leveraging their equity and selling their homes rather than risking the loss of their equity in a foreclosure auction.”
Foreclosure activity decreased 4% from last year, with properties foreclosed in Q3 2022 being in the foreclosure process an average of 885 days, down from 948 days in the previous quarter and down from 924 days in Q3 2021.
