U.S. Foreclosure Activity Doubles Annually
Foreclosure Starts Up from 2021, While Foreclosure Completions Decline
by ATTOM Staff
ATTOM, a leading curator of real estate data nationwide for land and property data, released its Year-End 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows foreclosure filings— default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — were reported on 324,237 U.S. properties in 2022, up 115% from 2021 but down 34% from 2019, before the pandemic shook up the market. Foreclosure filings in 2022 were also down 89% from a peak of nearly 2.9 million in 2010.
Those 324,237 properties with foreclosure filings in 2022 represented 0.23% of all U.S. housing units, up slightly from 0.11% in 2021, but down from 0.36% in 2019 and down from a peak of 2.23% in 2010.
“Eighteen months after the end of the government’s foreclosure moratorium, and with less than 5% of the 8.4 million borrowers who entered the CARES Act forbearance program remaining, foreclosure activity remains significantly lower than it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of market intelligence at ATTOM.
“It seems clear that government and mortgage industry efforts during the pandemic, coupled with a strong economy, have helped prevent millions of unnecessary foreclosures.”
ATTOM’s year-end foreclosure report provides a unique count of properties with a foreclosure filing during the year based on publicly recorded and published foreclosure filings collected in more than 3,000 counties nationwide, accounting for more than 99% of the U.S. population — also available for license or customized reporting.
The report also includes new data for December 2022, showing there were 30,822 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings, up less than 1% from the previous month but up 72% from a year ago.
Bank repossessions decrease 70% since 2019
Lenders repossessed 42,854 properties through foreclosures (REO) in 2022, up 67% from 2021 but down 70% from 2019 (143,955) and down 96% from a peak of 1,050,500 in 2010.
States that saw the greatest number of REOs in 2022 included:
» Illinois (5,518 REOs)
» Michigan (3,669 REOs)
» Pennsylvania (2,741 REOs)
» New York (2,405 REOs)
» California (2,223 REOs)
Those metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 1 million that saw the greatest number of REOs in 2022 included:
» Chicago, Illinois (3,545 REOs)
» Detroit, Illinois (2,135 REOs)
» New York, New York (1,656 REOs)
» St. Louis, Missouri (1,395 REOs)
» Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1,302 REOs)
“Unlike foreclosure activity during the Great Recession, the majority of homes in foreclosure are not being repossessed by lenders,” Sharga noted. “Our recent homeowner equity report shows that 93% of borrowers in foreclosure today have positive equity, which they appear to be leveraging in order to avoid a foreclosure by refinancing their mortgage or selling the property at a profit. It seems likely that this is a trend that will continue in 2023.”
Foreclosure starts on the rise nationwide
Lenders started the foreclosure process on 248,170 U.S. properties in 2022, up 169% from 2021 but down 26% form 2019 and down 88% from a peak of 2,139,005 in 2009.
States that saw the greatest number of foreclosure starts in 2022 included:
» California (27,269 foreclosure starts)
» Texas (23,151 foreclosure starts)
» Florida (22,968 foreclosure starts)
» Illinois (16,941 foreclosure starts)
» Ohio (13,469 foreclosure starts)
Counter to the national trend, five states saw an increase in foreclosure starts from 2019. They included:
» Indiana (up 81%)
» Michigan (up 10%)
» Idaho (up 8%)
» Colorado (up 2%)
» Minnesota (up less than 1%)
Those metropolitan statistical areas with a population greater than 1 million that saw the greatest number of foreclosure starts in 2022, included:
» New York, New York (15,821 foreclosure starts)
» Chicago, Illinois (14,360 foreclosure starts)
» Los Angeles, California (8,185 foreclosure starts)
» Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (7,286 foreclosure starts)
» Miami, Florida (7,090 foreclosure starts)
Illinois, New Jersey and Delaware post highest state foreclosure rates in 2022
States with the highest foreclosure rates in 2022 were:
» Illinois (0.49% of housing units with a foreclosure filing)
» New Jersey (0.45%)
» Delaware (0.40%)
» Ohio (0.38%)
» South Carolina (0.37%)
Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2022, were:
» Nevada (0.34%)
» Florida (0.33%)
» Indiana (0.30%)
» Maryland (0.27%)
» Michigan (0.26%)
Cleveland, Jacksonville, and Atlantic City post highest metro foreclosure rates in 2022
Among 223 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in 2022 were:
» Cleveland, Ohio (0.70% of housing units with a foreclosure filing)
» Jacksonville, North Carolina (0.58%)
» Atlantic City, New Jersey (0.58%)
» Columbia, South Carolina (0.55%)
» Chicago, Illinois (0.53%)
Metro areas with a population greater than 1 million, including Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago, Illinois, that had the highest foreclosure rates in 2022, were:
» Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (0.43%)
» Las Vegas, Nevada (0.42%)
» Jacksonville, Florida (0.42%)
Average time to foreclose decreases quarterly and annually
U.S. properties foreclosed in the fourth quarter of 2022 had been in the foreclosure process an average of 852 days, a 4% decrease from the previous quarter and 9% decrease from a year ago.
States with the longest average time to foreclose in Q4 2022 were:
» Hawaii (2,546 days)
» New Jersey (2,041 days)
» Louisiana (1,925 days)
» New York (1,828 days)
» Pennsylvania (1,692 days)
Q4 2022 Foreclosure Activity High-Level Takeaways
There was a total of 90,715 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings in Q4 2022, down 2% from the previous quarter but up 61% from a year ago.
Nationwide in Q4 2022, one in every 1,549 properties had a foreclosure filing.
States with the highest foreclosure rates in Q4 2022 were:
» Illinois (one in every 724 housing units with a foreclosure filing)
» Delaware (one in every 848 housing units)
» New Jersey (one in every 860 housing units)
» South Carolina (one in every 950 housing units)
» Ohio (one in every 1,035 housing units)
December 2022 Foreclosure Activity High-Level Takeaways
Nationwide in December 2022, one in every 4,558 properties had a foreclosure filing.
States with the highest foreclosure rates in December 2022 were:
» South Carolina (one in every 2,301 housing units with a foreclosure filing)
» New Jersey (one in every 2,378 housing units)
» Illinois (one in every 2,399 housing units)
» Delaware (one in every 2,535 housing units)
» Ohio (one in every 3,027 housing units)
21,023 U.S. properties started the foreclosure process in December 2022, up 2% from the previous month and up 129% from a year ago.
Lenders completed the foreclosure process on 3,663 U.S. properties in December 2022, down 3% from the previous month but up 21% from a year ago.
