ZOMBIE FORECLOSURES REMAIN A SMALL FRACTION OF U.S. HOUSING INVENTORY IN FIRST QUARTER OF 2025

Only One in 14,700 U.S. Homes Sit Vacant During Foreclosure, Near Five-Year Low; Zombie Foreclosures Virtually Unchanged Quarterly, Down 3 Percent Annually; Trends Hold as Overall Foreclosure Activity Remains Down

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- ATTOM, a leading curator of land, property data, and real estate analytics, today released its first-quarter 2025 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report showing that 1.4 million (1,372,396) residential properties in the United States are vacant. That figure represents 1.3 percent, or one in 76 homes, across the nation – the same as in the fourth quarter of last year and up slightly from a year ago.

The report analyzes publicly recorded real estate data collected by ATTOM — including foreclosure status, equity and owner-occupancy status — matched against monthly updated vacancy data. (See full methodology below).

The report also reveals that 212,268 residential properties in the U.S. are in the process of foreclosure in the first quarter of this year, down 1.5 percent from the fourth quarter of last year and down 12.6 percent from the first quarter of 2024. Foreclosure activity has decreased for five consecutive quarters following a surge in cases that occurred after the nationwide moratorium on lenders pursuing delinquent homeowners—implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic—was lifted in mid-2021.

Among those pre-foreclosure properties, 7,094 sit vacant as zombie foreclosures (pre-foreclosure properties abandoned by owners) in the first quarter of 2025. That figure is virtually the same as in the last quarter, but down 3.3 percent from a year ago.

The first-quarter data represents another measure in a long-term pattern of zombie properties representing just a miniscule portion of the nation's total housing stock. Currently, only one in every 14,668 homes across the U.S. has been vacated due to foreclosure, an improvement from one in 14,591 in late 2024 and one in 13,905 during the first quarter of last year. This ratio remains well below the recent peak of one in 11,412 recorded in late 2023, representing one of the lowest levels in the past five years.

Those numbers mean that most neighborhoods around the U.S. are totally or almost completely free of zombie foreclosures that can attract vandals and spread blight. The scenario stands out yet again as one of many enduring effects of a housing market boom around the nation now in its 14^th year.

"You'd have to take a very long walk through most U.S. communities to come across even one zombie foreclosure—and even then, you might not find any," said Rob Barber, CEO of ATTOM. "This marks a significant turnaround from the period following the Great Recession in the late 2000s, when a collapsing housing market and abandoned properties posed serious risks to many neighborhoods. The latest figures highlight one of the many benefits of the nation's prolonged housing market boom for both homeowners and renters alike."

He added that "we have every reason to believe this will continue into the foreseeable future, given high levels of equity flowing from rising home prices and historically low supplies of homes for sale that make the few abandoned properties out there more likely to be snapped up by buyers."

Zombie foreclosures either down or up by small amounts around U.S.

A total of 7,094 residential properties facing possible foreclosure have been vacated by their owners nationwide in the first quarter of 2025, down 0.2 percent from 7,109 in the fourth quarter of 2024 and down 3.3 percent from 7,338 in the first quarter of 2024. The number of zombie properties has gone down or remained the same quarterly in 22 states, usually decreasing by less than 25. The number has increased in 28 states, again by small amounts.

The biggest percent decreases from the first quarter of 2024 to the first quarter of 2025 in states that had at least 50 zombie homes a year ago are in Maryland (zombie properties down 38 percent, from 104 to 65), Georgia (down 35 percent, from 81 to 53), California (down 30 percent, from 310 to 217), New Jersey (down 23 percent, from 260 to 199) and Ohio (down 16 percent, from 597 to 503).

The largest annual increases among states that had at least 50 zombie foreclosures in the first quarter of 2025 have come in Missouri (zombie properties up 85 percent, from 27 to 50), Michigan (up 51 percent, from 55 to 83), South Carolina (up 31 percent, from 74 to 97), Indiana (up 28 percent, from 215 to 276) and Kansas (up 26 percent, from 69 to 87).

Overall vacancy rates shift by tiny amounts

The vacancy rate for all residential properties in the U.S. has remained virtually the same for 12 quarters in a row, hovering around 1.3 percent. The latest figure of 1.32 percent (one in 76 properties) is almost the same as the 1.31 percent level in fourth quarter of 2024 and up slightly from 1.26 percent in the first quarter of last year.

States with the highest vacancy rates for all residential properties are Oklahoma (2.41 percent during the first quarter of this year), Kansas (2.34 percent), Missouri (2.18 percent), Alabama (2.16 percent) and West Virginia (2.09 percent).

Those with the lowest overall vacancy rates are New Hampshire (0.34 percent), Vermont (0.41 percent), New Jersey (0.49 percent), Idaho (0.52 percent) and Connecticut (0.56 percent).

Other high-level findings from the first quarter of 2025:

• Among 171 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S. with at least 100,000 residential properties in the first quarter of 2025, those with at least 100 properties facing possible foreclosure and the highest zombie foreclosure rates are Peoria, IL (15.5 percent of properties in the foreclosure process are vacant); Wichita, KS (12.5 percent); Kansas City, MO (10.9 percent); Toledo, OH (10.6 percent) and Fort Wayne, IN (10 percent).
• Aside from Kansas City, the highest zombie-foreclosure rates in major metro areas with at least 500,000 residential properties and at least 100 homes facing foreclosure in the first quarter of 2025 are in Cleveland, OH (9.1 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); St. Louis, MO (8.9 percent); Indianapolis, IN (8.5 percent) and Detroit, MI (6.1 percent).
• Among the 24.8 million investor-owned homes throughout the U.S. in the first quarter of 2025, about 877,800 are vacant, or 3.5 percent. The highest levels of vacant investor-owned homes are in Indiana (6.9 percent vacant), Illinois (6 percent), Alabama (6 percent), Oklahoma (5.9 percent) and Kansas (5.9 percent).
• Among the roughly 12,300 foreclosed, bank-owned homes in the U.S. during the first quarter of 2025, 14 percent are vacant. In states with at least 50 bank-owned homes, the largest vacancy rates are in Kansas (37.7 percent vacant), Indiana (27.6 percent), Missouri (23.9 percent), Ohio (22.4 percent) and Illinois (22 percent).          
• The highest zombie-foreclosure rates in U.S. counties with at least 500 properties in the foreclosure process during the first quarter of 2025 are in Broome County (Binghamton), NY (15 percent of homes in the foreclosure process are vacant); Marion County (Indianapolis), IN (11.2 percent); Cuyahoga County (Cleveland), OH (10.4 percent); Niagara County (Niagara Falls), NY (8.7 percent) and Pinellas County (St. Petersburg), FL (8.5 percent).
• Among zip codes with enough data to analyze, 65 of the top 100 where zombie properties represent the largest portions of all homes are in New York. The highest rates are in zip codes 14892 in Waverly (Tioga County), NY (one in 260 homes); 12202 in Albany (Albany County), NY (one in 265); 61605 in Peoria (Peoria County), IL (one in 274 homes); 12887 in Whitehall (Washington County), NY (one in 283) and 13795 in Kirkwood (Broome County), NY (one in 284 homes).

Report Methodology

ATTOM analyzed county tax assessor data for 103.7 million residential properties for vacancy, broken down by foreclosure status and owner-occupancy status in the fourth quarter of 2024. Only metropolitan statistical areas with at least 100,000 residential properties, counties with at least 50,000 residential properties and zip codes with at least 1,000 residential properties were included in the analysis.

 About ATTOM

ATTOM provides premium property data and analytics that power a myriad of solutions that improve transparency, innovation, digitization and efficiency in a data-driven economy. ATTOM multi-sources property tax, deed, mortgage, foreclosure, 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. A rigorous data management process involving more than 20 steps validates, standardizes, and enhances the real estate data collected by ATTOM, assigning each property record with a persistent, unique ID — the ATTOM ID. The 30TB ATTOM Data Warehouse fuels innovation in many industries including mortgage, real estate, insurance, marketing, government and more through flexible data delivery solutions that include ATTOM Cloud, bulk file licenses, property data APIs, real estate market trends, property navigator and more. Also, introducing our newest innovative solution, making property data more readily accessible and optimized for AI applications – AI-Ready Solutions. 

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SOURCE ATTOM