First-Half Foreclosures at Their Highest Level in Four Years

ATTOM, a real estate data research firm based in California, recently announced that foreclosures in the first six months of this year were the most over a four-year period. 

From January to June 2023, there were 185,580 foreclosures – the most since 2019, when there were 296,458 foreclosures. This year’s was 12.8% higher than last year’s figure of 164,581. Compared to 2021, with 65,082 foreclosures, there was an increase of 185% in 2023. Further, the number of foreclosures so far in 2023 outpaced that in 2020 (165,530) by 12.1%.

Rob Barber, ATTOM’s chief executive officer, noted the elevated foreclosure activity over the past few years is nothing like the housing bubble in 2008, when more than 1 million homes were foreclosed upon, but this trend might not end anytime soon. “Although overall foreclosure activity remains below historical norms, the notable surge in foreclosure starts indicates that we may continue to see a rise in foreclosure activity in the coming years,” he said.

Among the 50 states with the greatest rise in foreclosure activity in the past six months, according to ATTOM, it was Maryland, which saw a 100% spike. Rounding up the top five were Oregon (99% increase), Alaska (95% increase), West Virginia (83% increase) and Arkansas (72% increase).

Further, ATTOM also found that the first six months of 2023 saw 135,065 properties which started the foreclosure process. That is 15% higher than in January to June 2022 and 36% more than the first half of 2020. The top five states with the most foreclosure starts were California (14,217), Florida (13,837), Texas (13,419), New York (8,772) and Illinois (7,995).

In addition, there were 22,672 bank repossessions, or REOs, in the first half of 2023, based on data from ATTOM. That is up 9% year over year and a whopping 133% from January to June 2021. The five states with the most REOs were Michigan (2,423), Illinois (2,059), Pennsylvania (1,420), California (1,362) and New York (1,350).