October 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Activity Continues To Increase Nationwide

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, licensor of the nation's most comprehensive foreclosure data and parent company to RealtyTrac (www.realtytrac.com), the largest online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties, released its October 2021 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, which shows there were a total of 20,587 U.S. properties with foreclosure filings — default notices, scheduled auctions or bank repossessions — up 5 percent from last month and 76 percent from a year ago, marking the sixth consecutive annual increase.

"As expected, now that the moratorium has been over for three months, foreclosure activity continues to increase," said Rick Sharga, executive vice president at RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company. "But it's increasing at a slower rate, and it appears that most of the activity is primarily on vacant and abandoned properties, or loans that were in foreclosure prior to the pandemic."

Illinois, Florida and New Jersey had the highest foreclosure rates

Nationwide one in every 6,675 housing units had a foreclosure filing in October 2021. States with the highest foreclosure rates were Illinois (one in every 1,923 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Florida (one in every 3,180 housing units); New Jersey (one in every 3,438 housing units); Nevada (one in every 3,837 housing units); and Ohio (one in every 4,386 housing units).

Among the 220 metropolitan statistical areas with a population of at least 200,000, those with the highest foreclosure rates in October 2021 were St. Louis, MO (one in every 1,138 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Trenton, NJ (one in every 1,293 housing units); Miami, FL (one in every 2,233 housing units); Chicago, IL (one in every 2,284 housing units); and Cleveland, OH (one in every 2,285 housing units).

Foreclosure starts increase monthly in 28 states nationwide

Lenders started the foreclosure process on 10,759 U.S. properties in October 2021, up 5 percent from last month and up 115 percent from a year ago.

States that had at least 100 foreclosure starts in October 2021 and saw the greatest monthly increase in foreclosure starts included: Pennsylvania (up 107 percent); North Carolina (up 104 percent); New Jersey (up 61 percent); Connecticut (up 56 percent); and Massachusetts (up 39 percent).

"Most foreclosure activity for the next few months is likely to be foreclosure starts," Sharga noted, "since virtually nothing entered the foreclosure process during the past year. The ratio of foreclosure starts to foreclosure completions will normalize over time as we get back to normal levels of activity."

Those major metropolitan areas with a population greater than one million and that had the greatest number of foreclosure starts in October 2021 included: New York, NY (667 foreclosure starts); Miami, FL (622 foreclosure starts); Los Angeles, CA (430 foreclosure starts); Houston, TX (349 foreclosure starts); and Atlanta, GA (345 foreclosure starts).

Foreclosure completion numbers increase 13 percent from last month

Lenders repossessed 3,027 U.S. properties through completed foreclosures (REOs) in October 2021, up 13 percent from last month and up 17 percent from last year.

States that saw the greatest number of REOs in October 2021, included: Illinois (1,075 REOs); California (178 REOs); Pennsylvania (175 REOs); Maryland (169 REOs); and Florida (148 REOs).

Those major metro areas (MSAs) with a population greater than one million that saw the greatest number of REOs in October 2021 included: St. Louis, MO (906 REOs); Chicago, IL (128 REOs); Baltimore, MD (114 REOs); Philadelphia, PA (72 REOs); and New York, NY (71 REOs).

Report Methodology

The ATTOM U.S. Foreclosure Market Report provides a count of the total number of properties with at least one foreclosure filing entered into the ATTOM Data Warehouse during the month and quarter. Some foreclosure filings entered into the database during the quarter may have been recorded in the previous quarter. Data is collected from more than 3,000 counties nationwide, and those counties account for more than 99 percent of the U.S. population. ATTOM's report incorporates documents filed in all three phases of foreclosure: Default — Notice of Default (NOD) and Lis Pendens (LIS); Auction — Notice of Trustee Sale and Notice of Foreclosure Sale (NTS and NFS); and Real Estate Owned, or REO properties (that have been foreclosed on and repurchased by a bank). For the annual, midyear and quarterly reports, if more than one type of foreclosure document is received for a property during the timeframe, only the most recent filing is counted in the report. The annual, midyear, quarterly and monthly reports all check if the same type of document was filed against a property previously. If so, and if that previous filing occurred within the estimated foreclosure timeframe for the state where the property is located, the report does not count the property in the current year, quarter or month.

Interested in finding out more about our pre-foreclosure and foreclosure data?

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About ATTOM

ATTOM provides foreclosure data licenses that can power various enterprise industries including real estate, insurance, marketing, government, mortgage and more. ATTOM multi-sources from 3,000 counties property tax, deed, mortgage, environmental risk, natural hazard, and neighborhood data for more than 155 million U.S. residential and commercial properties covering 99 percent of the nation's population.  

About RealtyTrac (Powered by ATTOM's Property Data) 

RealtyTrac.com is the largest online marketplace for foreclosure and distressed properties, helping individual investors and real estate agents looking to gain a competitive edge in the distressed market. Realtytrac.com enables real estate professionals the ability to find, analyze and invest in residential properties.

Media Contact:
Christine Stricker
949.748.8428
[email protected] 

Data and Report Licensing:
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SOURCE ATTOM