There were 15,838 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in August, up 27 percent from a month ago and 60 percent from a year ago, according to ATTOM’s August 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report. Numbers reflect the first month since the government moratorium was lifted.
“As expected, foreclosure activity increased as the government’s foreclosure moratorium expired, but this doesn’t mean we should expect to see a flood of distressed properties coming to market,” RealtyTrac Executive Vice President Rick Sharga said in a release. RealtyTrac is an ATTOM company. “We’ll continue to see foreclosure activity increase over the next three months as loans that were in default prior to the moratorium re-enter the foreclosure pipeline, and states begin to catch up on months of foreclosure filings that simply haven’t been processed during the pandemic. But it’s likely that foreclosures will remain below normal levels at least through the end of the year.”
States with the highest foreclosure rates were Illinois (one in every 3,848 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Nevada (one in every 4,738); New Jersey (one in every 4,868); Delaware (one in every 5,348); and Ohio (one in every 5,517).
Among the 220 metro areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in August were Bakersfield, Calif., (one in every 1,796 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Atlantic City, N.J. (one in every 1,886); Cleveland (one in every 2,259); Rockford, Ill., (one in every 3,037); and Las Vegas (one in every 3,718).
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 8,348 properties in August, up 27 percent from last month and up 49 percent from a year ago.
“While foreclosure starts increased significantly compared to last month and last year, it’s very important to keep these numbers in context,” Sharga said. “Both last year’s and last month’s foreclosure starts were artificially low due to the government’s moratorium. But in August of 2019, the last year we had ‘normal’ foreclosure activity, there were almost 28,000 foreclosure starts – over three times more than this year.”
States that had the greatest number of foreclosure starts in August were California (1,240); Texas (1,060); Florida (643); Illinois (506); and New York (479). Major metropolitan areas with the greatest number of foreclosure starts included New York (486); Chicago (439); Los Angeles (401); Houston (322); and Dallas-Fort Worth (248).