The number of default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions in 2018 dropped to their lowest level since 2005, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ U.S. Foreclosure Market Report.
ATTOM said there were foreclosure filings on 624,753 U.S. properties in 2018, down 8 percent from 2017 and down 78 percent from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010 to the lowest level since 2005.
The foreclosure filings in 2018 represented 0.47 percent of all U.S. housing units, down from 0.51 percent in 2017 and down from a peak of 2.23 percent in 2010 to the lowest level since 2005.
“Plummeting foreclosure completions combined with consistently falling foreclosure timelines in 2018 provide evidence that most of the distress from the last housing crisis has now been cleaned up,” ATTOM Chief Product Officer Todd Teta said in a release. “But there was also some evidence of distress gradually returning to the housing market in 2018, with foreclosure starts increasing from the previous year in more than one-third of all state and local housing markets.
“Some of that distress was driven by natural disasters, most notably in Houston, where foreclosure starts increased 61 percent,” Teta continued. “But natural disasters do not explain the increase in markets such as Detroit, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Milwaukee and Austin — all of which posted double-digit percentage increases in foreclosure starts in 2018.”
According to the report, the states with the biggest decline in foreclosure starts in 2018 were Rhode Island (down 39 percent); Hawaii (down 26 percent); North Carolina (down 24 percent); Washington (down 24 percent); and Connecticut (down 23 percent).
Metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) with the largest declines in foreclosure starts in 2018 were Salinas, Calif. (down 49 percent); San Luis Obispo, Calif. (down 44 percent); Tyler, Texas (down 42 percent); Durham, N.C. (down 40 percent); and Portland, Ore. (down 32 percent).
Despite the national trend, several states had year-over-year increases in foreclosure starts in 2018, including Minnesota (up 29 percent); Texas (up 15 percent); Michigan (up 15 percent); Florida (up 13 percent); Louisiana (up 5 percent); and Delaware (up 2 percent), ATTOM found.
The report identified that states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2018 as New Jersey (1.33 percent); Delaware (.96 percent); Maryland (0.86 percent); Illinois (0.74 percent); and Connecticut (0.72 percent).
The MSAs with the highest foreclosure rates in 2018 were Atlantic City (2.37 percent); Trenton, N.J. (1.56 percent); Flint, Mich. (1.16 percent); Philadelphia (1.06 percent); Peoria, Ill. (1.03 percent); Cleveland (1 percent); and Columbia, S.C. (0.95 percent).