Foreclosures Rise in January

Foreclosures saw an increase in January.

According to ATTOM’s January 2022 U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, 23,204 properties had foreclosure filings, an increase of 29% from December and 139% from January 2021. One in every 5,922 properties had a foreclosure filing in the month. As a reminder, there was an eviction mortarium still in place in January 2021, which ended in August 2021, thus impacting the year over year comparisons. Completed foreclosures increased 57% from December and 235% from a year prior, with 4,784 properties repossessed. This was the seventh month in a row with an annual increase in completed foreclosures. For Pennsylvania, Philadelphia was named one of the metros (with more than 200,000 residents) with the highest completed foreclosures at 107. However, Philadelphia was below some of its’ named peers, with Detroit having 1,013 and Chicago having 210.

Despite rising numbers, foreclosures are still below pre-pandemic levels, the report found. “Foreclosure completions are still far below normal levels – less than half as many as in January of 2020 before the pandemic was declared, and about 60% lower than the number of foreclosure completions in 2019. We’re likely to continue seeing large year-over-year percentage increases for the rest of this year, but it’s also likely that foreclosure activity will remain below historically normal levels until the end of 2022,” said Rick Sharga, executive vice president of RealtyTrac, an ATTOM company.

As for the start of the foreclosure process, 11,854 properties started in January, an increase of 29% from December and 126% year over year. Michigan had the highest amount of completed foreclosures in January, with their zip codes taking up the top 10 spots.