More than 1.5 million single-family homes and condos were vacant in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to ATTOM Data Solutions’ Q4 2019 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report.
During the fourth quarter, about 288,300 homes were in the process of foreclosure, with 8,535, or 2.96 percent sitting empty as “zombie” foreclosures, the report found.
The percentage of zombie properties in the fourth quarter is down from 3.2 percent in the previous quarter and 4.7 percent one year ago, according to the report.
“The fourth quarter of 2019 was a repeat of the third quarter when it came to properties abandoned by owners facing foreclosure: the scourge continued to fade,” ATTOM Chief Product Officer Todd Teta said in a release. “One of the most visible signs of the housing market crash during the Great Recession keeps receding into the past.
“While pockets of zombie foreclosures remain, neighborhoods throughout the country are confronting fewer and fewer of the empty, decaying properties that were symbolic of the fallout from the housing market crash during the recession,” Teta added.
ATTOM said Washington, D.C., had the highest percentage of zombie foreclosures (10.5 percent). States with zombie foreclosure rates above the national rate of 2.9 percent included Kansas (7.9 percent); Oregon (7.9 percent); Montana (7.4 percent); Maine (6.7 percent); and New Mexico (5.8 percent).
The states with the lowest rates of zombie foreclosures (all less than 1.2 percent) were North Dakota, Arkansas, Idaho, Colorado and Delaware.
The report said New York had the highest actual number of zombie properties (2,266), followed by Florida (1,461); Illinois (892); Ohio (823); and New Jersey (398).
The metropolitan areas with the highest percentage of vacant foreclosures were Peoria, Ill. (13.5 percent); Wichita, Kan. (10.2 percent); Lexington, K.Y.(9.8 percent); Syracuse, N.Y. (9.3 percent); and Honolulu (8.6 percent).